Comets Crashing Gravity Glitches Planets Align
by assyla silver
Summary: The story of Jacob and Renesmee's son.
1. disclaimer

Disclaimer:

I do not own Twilight and I'm not pretending to.

Also, to anyone who knows me and happens to be in this story, I apologize for anything that may not seem like something you would do or say. I'm going to do the best I can to try and keep it as real as possible, but it IS a fanFICTION :)


	2. Prologue

Prologue

It is 23 years after Breaking Dawn. When Renesmee was technically 6 years old she had a son. Her pregnancy was accelerated like Bella's was except since she was already half vampire, Nessie had little difficulty with it.

Andrew Black grew at a normal human pace despite being quarter vampire, quarter human and half werewolf. He, Renesmee and Jacob lived in Temecula, California. Jacob's pack had followed them but Renesmee's family hadn't. They had moved further north than Forks. They planned on going back in about fifty years.

As he grew, Andrew's characteristics showed themselves to be divided evenly between vampire and werewolf with very little human influence. Andrew had a werewolf temper but also some vampire brain power that helped keep it in check. But when he did lose it, Andrew just grew a tail and claws. His accelerated heartbeat meant he could hold his breath for an extremely long time as long as he had had a good night's sleep recently. And to top it all off, he was just as fast and strong and almost as graceful as his mother.

His favorite part, though, was being able to survive on either human food or blood. It gave him more choices, something he didn't think he had many of.

The few he had were like comets.

One, to aggravate or not to aggravate the Volturi, who, as far as he knew, knew about him but were keeping their distance.

Two, to let Great Grandpa Carlisle experiment on him or not.

Three, to give over to the thought-to-be-dead-vampire-werewolf war within him or not.

Sooner or later one (or more) of these comets would come crashing down on his world.


	3. Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
February 8

"Andrew Daniel Black," Renesmee called up the stairs. "Hurry up or your friends are going to leave without you!"

"Who's driving today?" Andrew called back as he grabbed his stuff and headed downstairs.

"Looks like Kendra."

"Dang, even _I_ could die from that... Bye Mom!"

"Be nice," Renesmee chided. "And don't forget the family is visiting tomorrow night, so don't make any plans!"

"OK!" How could he forget? He had been dreading this for weeks. Whenever he came into contact with a full vampire, Andrew had an urge to do something violent. And considering half his family was made up of vampires, that wasn't a good thing. So, he kept it to himself.

Andrew ran out, barely remembering to stay at human speed. He jumped into the car smoothly, "Hey guys, what's happening?"

"Kendra is making Christian's head hurt," Alyssa laughed. "And Emmi is just shaking her head at us."

"Nice. What'd ya do Kennie?"

Kendra pulled out of the Black's driveway and began driving towards TVHS, Thomas Valley High School. "I stole Alyssa's favorite question."

"Which would be?"

"If weird is normal and normal is weird, do either really exist?" Kendra and Alyssa chorused. Kendra O'Connell and Alyssa Spoor weren't related at all but they were like sisters. They said that Kendra was the evil twin and Alyssa the anti-evil twin ("good twin" was just too boring).

"Of course they exist," Emmi interrupted. "Just look at the difference between me and the rest of you."

That made everyone think for a second. Emily Love was much more normal than the rest of them…

"Well," Alyssa said thoughtfully. "You have your quirks, too. That makes you weird in those ways."

"Such as?" Emmi drawled.

"Mommy Syndrome!" Kendra sing-songed.

"I don't have Mommy Syndrome!"

"What's Mommy Syndrome?" Christian asked.

"Miss Emmi is much more parental than the rest of us," Kenra explained. "She's like a mommy. And therefore she has MS—Mommy Syndrome!"

"Shut up," Emmi rolled her eyes. It was quiet for a second.

Andrew turned to Christian. "Hey, Christian, guess what?"

"What?"

"Santiago won!" Everyone burst into laughter.

They were all in swim. (They were the team's Crazies.) In the league finals meet of the season last year, Santiago's team had taken first even though it was their first year in finals. Andrew, being the comedian, had turned it into a joke that he saved until the best possible moment.

And it worked. The Crazies made their way into school, loud and wonderfully human.


	4. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
February 9

Yesterday had been perfectly normal. Totally human. No violent urges. No temper problems. It had been mostly human. Plenty of normal, human choices.

Tonight was different. Andrew ate his dinner with his parents as they waited for the rest of the family. He had slept hard most of today in preparation for the visit. They could be up all night.

Jacob Black knew something was wrong with his son. He even suspected that it had to do with the visit. But he didn't know what was wrong. He was thinking about asking Edward for help in that area.

Renesmee sipped her cup of blood delicately. Sometimes she regretted moving to such a sunny place, but the Cullen-Black family had gotten too big and noticeable so they moved somewhere very few vampires could go. That helped a bit with the Volturi problem, but they wouldn't be put off forever…

Andrew's ears perked up at the sound of approaching, near silent feet coming from the north just a few seconds after his parents turned to look that direction. The back door was facing north. It was wide open, waiting for the family.

Bella and Edward came in first, racing to embrace first their daughter, then Jacob and then Andrew.

"Hey, Grandma, hi Grandpa."

"Hey, sweetie," Bella smiled.

Edward smiled, too. "How are you?"

"Fine," Andrew lied, not thinking about the violence issue. He knew how to hide his thoughts around Edward fairly well.

Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper all came in next. The girls all chattered happily and the boys rough housed just like a bunch of kids. Andrew stayed away. It was cool seeing how relaxed his family was but that might be too tempting.

Last came the heart and the soul of the family, Great-grandma Esme and Great-grandpa Carlisle. Not that Andrew could call them that. They just didn't seem old enough… It was weird enough calling 18 year old Bella and 17 year old Edward 'Grandma' and 'Grandpa'.

Everyone made their way into the living room, the vampires remembering that the hybrids didn't like to stand for long period of time if they didn't have to.

Everyone wanted to know everything! The Cullens asked a ton of questions about the Black's lives.

Bella: Renesmee, what are your friends like here? You're making friends right?

Renesmee: -rolls her eyes playfully- Yes, I am, Mom. In fact just the other day my friend Clarisse and I…

Edward: Jake, are the other wolves coming tonight?

Jacob: No, half are on Volturi patrol and the other half are either human or sleeping.

Alice: The Volturi are bothering you? Ugh, I still can't see around all you hybrids…

Jasper: We can take them if they come back.

Rosalie: Any girls after you yet, Drew?

Andrew: Don't even get me started, Rose.

Emmett: All right! Who are they and what are they?

This conversation would turn to two of the most annoying things in Andrew's life. The only thing more annoying was the violent urges… Andrew cut off that train of thought and told Emmett and Rosalie about Faith and Amy.

"Leah and Tad's daughter, Faith, is one," Andrew said dryly. "Embry and Valerie's daughter, Amy, is the other. They're convinced I can't imprint and they know that they can't imprint or be imprinted on until they quit their wolf like with Leah. So their solution is to try to get me to fall for them and then never quit their wolves. Unless I turn out not to be immortal that is."

It grew tense and quiet. That was a subject no one usually breeched.

Renesmee broke the silence first. "There's no reason for you not to live as long as the rest of us, Andrew. You could be like me, having to grow for a while before you stop for good."

The tension eased almost magically and Andrew looked at Jasper, who shrugged. There was no real reason to have to worry about this right now.

Emmett looked at Jacob. "How bad do they have it for him?"

Alice rolled her eyes, it was just like Emmett to change the subject rather than work through it.

Jacob chuckled. "Pretty badly. It's a good thing that Andrew can't connect with the pack's mind or he'd be outta here faster than Bella got knocked out when she jumped off that cliff."

"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?" Bella growled, exasperated.

"Not a chance."

Andrew listened to their banter and the other conversations that started back up again. It was safer than thinking his own thoughts while Edward was here.

_**Later**_

Edward took Jacob aside when everyone else was busy and Andrew was out cold on the couch. He could sleep as hard as any werewolf. They went out of earshot of the family.

"What's on your mind, mind reader?"

Edward chuckled, "This would be déjà vu if we were human."

"Sure, sure. So what's up?"

Edward's frowned. "I am concerned about Andrew."

"That reminds me, did you hear anything that could help me figure out what the heck is eating him? Something is the matter but—"

"That's what I was concerned about," Edward raised an eyebrow. "Yet again we're on the same wavelength."

"I'd find that creepy if you weren't a freaking mind reader," Jacob said pointedly.

"True. But it seems that Jacob gets some sort of violent urge sometimes. He didn't finish his thought but apparently they're some of the most annoying things in his life. Worse than Faith and Amy."

Jacob let out a low whistle. "That's saying something. He's never been violent, though."

"I'm just warning you. The urges are there. And if Aero reads his mind, he'll use that. They're still after revenge."

"I know," Jacob growled. "But no one is hurting my family."

"Which is partly why you came here."

"Yes."

"The other part being you aren't sure about Andrew's mortality."

"Yeah." Jacob exhaled hard. "If it turns out he isn't immortal, then Nessie and I want to give him the best life possible. Away from the Volturi. With his friends. No weird stares or rumors."

"I know."

"Of course you do."


	5. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
February 11

Finally it was Friday! It was also lunch! Andrew was hanging out with some of his friends that weren't part of the Crazies, so it was random when he saw Kendra and Alyssa popped up out of nowhere.

"Hey, Andrew!" Kendra said happily. She seemed hyper.

"Crap, you had chocolate, didn't you?"

"YES!"

"She's scaring our new friend," Alyssa rolled her eyes tolerantly. Then she looked around. "Hey, where'd she… oh, there she is. Clara, no one's going to bite I promise!"

A pretty girl slowly came over and joined them.

"Clara, Andrew Black. Andrew, Clara de la Cruz," Alyssa introduced them.

"Hey," Andrew held out his hand.

"Hi," Clara took it, not seeming at all weirded out by the old fashioned-ness.

"Have the twins been scaring you?"

"Nah, the anti-evil one has kept the sugarized one in check," Clara said dryly.

"If only I could do that all the time," Alyssa sighed like someone who was fighting a hopeless battle. (Which, in fact, she was.) "I'm starting to think your Kendra impression is going to apply better to me."

"Impressions?" Clara asked.

"Andrew's a comedian," Kendra sing-songed. "He can do pretty much any impression you give him! He's our entertainment whenever we get bored or sad!"

"Twin of mine, you are going to be taken to the asylum soon."

"But I don't like the asylum!"

Andrew interrupted. "Have an impression you want to see before we have to get Kendra into that white jacket with the really, really long sleeves?"

Clara grinned. "Let's see… OK, I got it. You're an airplane pilot whose engines have both just exploded."

"Pshhh," Andrew imitated talking into a radio hand piece. "Attention passengers, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we will be making our landing much sooner than expected.

"The bad news is that we will, in fact, be crashing into those sharp rocks down you can see if you look out the windows to your left. But, really, there's no reason to panic." He paused. "Can I get some coffee up here?"

All three girls started cracking up and Andrew thought of something else.

"Better yet. Pshh, attention passengers, due to my amazing piloting skills you may not have noticed that we have dropped 25,500 feet in the past few moments. However we only have a few hundred feet to go so I felt I should warn you— _KA-BOOM!_"

"Stop, stop!" Clara pleaded, "You're making my sides hurt!"

"Well that's my job! Hey I have another—"

The lunch bell rang just then, saving the three girls from more side aches.

"C'mon Clara," Alyssa gasped. "We'll show you where your last class is. It's on our way to the gym from here."

"All right," Clara agreed easily. She looked into Andrew's eyes and smiled. "See you around."

"See you," Andrew said automatically. He watched Clara walk out with Alyssa. What was that weird feeling in his stomach?

"BYE ANDREW!" Kendra yelled and dashed after the other girls.

"Crazy chick…" Andrew shook his head, trying to regain his sense of normalcy as he grabbed his stuff and headed for Gym.


	6. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
February 12

Andrew was out for a run. It was something he did when he wanted to clear his head. So far it was working. He focused on the sound of his feet hitting the pavement. One-two. One-two. One—

"Andrew!"

"Drew!"

Crap… Andrew couldn't speed up or else he'd draw attention from humans around this street. Nowhere to hide either.

Faith and Amy caught up to him with ease. Female wolves were generally faster than male wolves and since Andrew was only half…

"'Sup, hot stuff?" Amy winked.

"Trying to match your dad's eight pack? You really shouldn't. Why mess with perfection?" Faith flipped her dark hair flirtatiously without breaking pace.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "You two have got to quit stalking me."

Both shrugged but didn't deny it.

"You should run patrol with me tonight," Amy said. "I really need a partner."

"There's no patrol here. No vampire problems, no patrol." Andrew said shortly.

"Who said we needed problems to go running? Or other things…"

Andrew tried to trip Amy and she laughed. "Guess that's a no then."

"How about me?" Faith asked innocently.

Andrew changed his direction, heading towards the trees behind the shopping center, a plan forming in his mind.

"Really?" Faith got excited. Andrew didn't respond. The girls kept running with him.

Andrew slowed to a stop when they reached the trees. "You two are _irritating_. Haven't you got that yet?"

"You're in denial," they sing-songed together, reminding Andrew of Kendra.

"Nope," Andrew said curtly. "You're stalkers. Creepers. _Hormonal girls!_ You need to knock it off!"

"Not a chance," Faith said.

"You'll crack one day."

"Not in this lifetime."

"We have plenty to spare," Amy smirked.

Andrew threw a punch towards her and Amy exploded into her wolf form on a reflex reaction. As Faith jumped out of the way to avoid being trampled, Andrew made a break for it, running as fast as he could.

_C'mon faster!_ He told himself. _She'll catch up! _Desperation filled Andrew and he felt very cold in contrast to his usual 102 degrees. He began running to fast that he knew everything should be a blur. But it wasn't. Everything was crystal clear, coming at him in slow motion. Andrew knew he should be feeling a burning in his lungs. But curiously enough he didn't need to breath. Like his heart had stopped beating.

_I've turned vampire,_ Andrew realized. His house came into view in the distance and he was there within the minute. He ran indoors and he could hear his mom in the kitchen and ran that way.

"Ma!"

"Andrew?" Renesmee dropped the crystal cup in her hand. Andrew knew that it had shattered into 73 pieces instantly. He counted the see through thing that fast.

Suddenly Andrew felt the desperate need for oxygen and sucked it in as quickly as he could. His heartbeat was back. Blackness ate around the corners of his vision.

"Andrew!" Nessie caught her son as he collapsed. "JACOB! HELP!"


	7. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

February 13, 3AM

Jacob paced the floor worriedly. Carlisle was with Andrew. He, Bella and Edward had all driven down when Renesmee had called Bella in a panic after he hadn't been in earshot of the house. That had been nearly ten hours ago and Andrew still hadn't woken up.

Renesmee went over and over the scene in her mind.

_Andrew had run in the house, "Ma!" But the smell was off. It was all sweet, like a vampire. No dog or human smell. He had burst into the kitchen faster than he was supposed to be able to, surprising Nessie into dropping the cup she had been cleaning. _

_Renesmee's mind had automatically noted the lack of heartbeat and breathing. She had heard when his heart started back up again; pumping blood back through her son's paling skin. Andrew had sucked in air like a suffocating human and then collapsed. Nessie caught him and shouted for Jake. When he hadn't answered she called her mother._

"_Mom? I need you _now_!" Renesmee trilled. "Something's wrong with Andrew!"_

"_We're coming," Bella promised, Renesmee heard her call for Edward and they spoke too quickly for Nessie to follow. "Honey, stay calm." There was the sound of an engine in the background. "We're in the car. Grandpa is coming, too."_

"_All right," Nessie fought to keep calm. This couldn't be happening! Andrew was supposed to at least live as long as a human! Had the Volturi come? Had they bitten him? Where was Jacob?_

Edward put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Ness, they aren't here. He'll be OK."

"We don't know that," Nessie choked. "He might die like they expected him to. That's the only reason they haven't come. They thought he would die because werewolf and vampire shouldn't be compatible."

"It worked for you and Jacob," Edward reminded her.

"But I'm half human."

"And Andrew is a quarter human. It's probably that part that makes it all balance out."

Renesmee nodded. "I just wish he'd wake up…"

"We all do," Bella said, coming over. "Carlisle, do you have any idea?"

Carlisle shook his head, not looking away from Andrew. He was continuously checking his vital signs. "I'm sorry; you know I'd tell you if I did."

"Let's go over this again," Bella said. "You said there was no sign of anything but vampire when he came in?"

"Right," Nessie bit her lip. "He was turning pale even though I could smell blood still in his body. His heart just wasn't pumping it. It wasn't going at all. He wasn't breathing and he ran in just as fast as a vampire. He stopped for a second. Then his heart started beating and he needed to breathe. And then—"She stopped, unable to go on.

"He went full vampire," Carlisle marveled from where he was kneeling by the couch Andrew was on. "When all this time werewolf seemed to be dominate."

"He _is_ half wolf," Jacob spoke, stopping his pacing for a moment. "But what made him _do_ it? There had to be something that set him off!"

"It's like when you explode, Jake," Bella realized. "Cause and effect. Except this effect was to ditch wolf and go vamp."

A groan came from the couch.

"Andrew!" Nessie exclaimed. She was by his side in an instant. "Andy, can you hear me?"

Andrew's eyes opened slowly and saw his mom's worried face. What had happened? He smelled the ultra-sweet scent of full vampires and and automatically he felt the need to hurt one.

"Andrew, say something," Nessie begged.

"Calm down, Renesmee," Bella soothed. "You'll frighten him."

Uh-oh. If Bella was here then Edward probably was, too.

"I'm here." Edward answered Andrew's thought.

Was he going to tell?

"No. How are you feeling?"

Andrew forced his mouth to work. "Numb, I can't feel most of my body. What happened?"

"That's what we wanted to ask you," Andrew saw Carlisle for the first time. "Do you remember anything?"

"Just think about it," Edward said. "I'll tell them what you show me."

Andrew thought back to the start of his run. Amy and Faith appearing. How he had made Amy explode and then booked it. How he had felt so desperate to get away from the remaining Faith. How he had suddenly turned vampire. Running into the house. Seeing the cup break. Darkness.

Edward relayed all that to the others.

"What did I look like?" Andrew asked his mom. She put a hand to his face and showed him.

Andrew was shocked. He had looked just like one of them. Had he sparkled as he ran? He really hoped not…

"Throwing rainbows not for you?" Edward chuckled.

"Heck no," Andrew said without thinking.

"He's his dad's son," Jacob laughed.

Andrew sat up. The numb feeling had disappeared. "So… what now?"


	8. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

February 15

The 'what now' had been 'Andrew goes to bed and is woken up by Jacob every two hours like a human with a concussion for the rest of the night'. When morning came his mom wouldn't let Andrew go to school. Today he had managed to get her to let him go, saying he needed 'normalcy'. After all, they had two full vampires staying with them!

When Andrew headed outdoors to the car waiting for him he heard his mom saying, "—so don't forget" and all the girls in the car assuring her they wouldn't.

"Not forget what?" Andrew asked when he was close enough.

"You heard that?" Alyssa frowned from the driver's seat.

Andrew shrugged. He had learned that explanations were often unnecessary.

"Have a good day everyone," Renesmee said brightly and headed back indoors.

"Forget what?" Andrew asked again, getting in. "C'mon you know I hate secrets!"

"Chill out," Emmi frowned. Why did she seem worried?

"Christian, you'll tell me right?"

"Um…" All the females were shooting him death stares.

It was quiet for a long moment. Then the car roared to life and Alyssa pulled out of the Black driveway saying, "One more to go."

"What?" Kendra asked.

"Clara called me. She overslept too much to drive to school. We figured out that she lives right down the road from here."

"She does?" Christian asked. "I thought she lived by the middle school."

"You're thinking of either Karlee or Iliana and Carmelita," Emmi said.

The conversation continued around Andrew, who wasn't really listening until he heard 'vampire'.

"What?"

"Tsk, tsk, Drew-de-drew," Kendra shook her head. "That's what you get for not listening."

"What about vampires?" Did they know?

"This new book they're going on about," Christian moaned. "It's horrible."

"IS NOT!" Alyssa and Kendra yelled together.

"Starlight isn't exactly 'great'," Emmi said.

"IS SO!"

"What's it about?" Andrew interrupted.

Kendra told him. "It's about a vampire who falls in love with a human but she can't know. Eventually she does find out about him and his coven family thing, who only drink animal blood because they're good, and eventually evil vampires start hunting the girl because the good guy vampire won't change her and the bad guy vampire is a competitive ego maniac who isn't used to the word 'no'."

That sounded a LOT like…

"We're just starting Full Moon, the sequel," Alyssa said. "I'm mad at the good guy vampire, Evan because he left the human girl, Bailey!"

Was someone writing stories about his family? Andrew inwardly panicked. He reached for his phone to text someone to get them to look into it…

"Hey, Clara!"

"Hey, Kendra…"

"I didn't have sugar. Cross my heart!"

"Good," Clara laughed. Andrew quickly switched to a middle seat to make room. What had he been worrying about? Oh well, couldn't have been that important…

All day Andrew tried to recall what he hadn't remembered in the car. But every time he thought of it he saw Clara and lost it. He couldn't help get distracted when she appeared and he had no idea why.

That evening Andrew's phone buzzed. It was a message from Christian.

_We're all on the way._

Oh no! They were all supposed to come over to hang out tonight and he had two vampires in the house!

Vampires! Starlight! Crap!

Edward called up the stairs. "You're mom didn't forget. Just keep them busy. It will be fine."

They knew about the books then?

"The Volturi wrote them actually," Edward appeared by the door. He raised an eyebrow when Andrew couldn't conceal the violent urge from his thoughts. "We'll have to talk about _that_ soon, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. But the _Volturi_ wrote them? Doesn't that go against all their rules?"

"It's sort of backwards logic. If humans are more convinced we are fiction through a wildly popular book, we're supposedly in less danger of being discovered." Edward shrugged. "They plan on releasing the next two books within the year. Daytime Darkness and Setting Sun. It will be interesting to see how well their theory works, don't you think?"


	9. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
February 15

Emmi, Christian, Kendra and Alyssa brought a _lot_ of noise into the house as they entered.

"It's so good!"

"Is not!"

"Guys!" Andrew cut in. "We should all head upstairs…"

"Drew, come introduce your aunt and uncle to them," Nessie called.

Were Emmett and Rosalie or Alice and Jasper here? Andrew led the mob into the kitchen.

"Everyone, this is my Gr—Aunt Bella and Uncle Edward," Andrew said. "Bella, Edward, Christian, Kendra, Alyssa, and Emmi." He pointed at each in turn.

Edward winked at Andrew too fast for the humans to see. The two who were reading the series were proving the Volturi wrong. They had already put the paleness and beauty together with the supernatural.

Renesmee touched Edward's shoulder. "Eddie here is my brother." Edward winced at the nickname. Renesmee projected an image into his mind of the girls figuring out the secret and tinted the image with the impression of a question.

Edward gave her a _look_, "Edward, please, Nessie." He nodded once in answer to her question.

Should I take them up now? Andrew thought.

"Bella and I have some things to go over. May we use your study?" The study was the farthest room away from Andrews.

"Of course. Andrew, why don't you…"

Renesmee didn't have to finish her question. Andrew was already herding the humans upstairs to the game room. "Videogames where you can hurt me all you want and possibly win!"

"I'm in!" The 'twins' chimed.

"Heck yeah!" Christian said.

"Sure," Emmi shrugged.

In the middle of the third game Alyssa's phone buzzed and made her lose her last life. "Dang it! If that's about 90 percent of my contacts I'm going to— oh, OK never mind."

"Who is it?" Kendra didn't look away from the screen on which she and Christian had tag teamed to defeat Emmi.

"Clara."

Andrew got hit by a dying Emmi and lost his first life as she was eliminated.

"Eh, I lasted longer than Alyssa," Emmi shrugged. Alyssa looked up from her phone long enough to stick her tongue out at Emmi before finishing her text.

Kendra was being trapped by the boys. "You traitor!" She yelled at Christian.

"He's a boy," Emmi rolled her eyes. "He's going to side with another boy. They're all dumb like that."

"Annnnnnnddddd….KA-POW! You're out!" Christian hooted before engaging in battle with Andrew. Christian had one life and Andrew had two.

"You two want to go downstairs and grab some more drinks?" Kendra asked, bouncing from too much soda sugar. Andrew lost a life.

"OK," Alyssa agreed.

"Let's clean up some of the trash first," Emmi said. They gathered empty cans and started for the door.

Andrew and Christian kept playing.

There was a loud vibrating. Alyssa had left her phone on the floor.

The on screen dueling continued.

The girls returned.

"Please don't tell me you got more sugar," Andrew said, beginning to store up power for an energy blast.

"Yes, we did!" Alyssa laughed.

"Your mom made brownies!" Kendra grinned. She had already eaten two.

"I'm really scared right now," Emmi said, moving away from the sugar crazed girls.

"_Sudden Death,"_ the TV said in the annoying announcer voice.

"Heck yeah!" Andrew released his energy blast.

"NOOOOO!" Christian died.

"And the returning champion is Andrew Black!"

"So close," Christian grumbled.

"Are we done with killing games?" Emmi asked. "Alyssa turn down that vibrate! It's annoying!"

"I can't. My phone is dumb."

"Then stop texting!"

"I have a solution," Andrew got up. Before anyone could move he snatched the phone from Alyssa's hand and started a message.

"ANDREW!" Alyssa tried to get her phone back. (Obviously she was no match for a genetic oddity such as a were-vamp-human thing.)

_Sorry, Alyssa is not allowed to use her phone by order of Andrew._

Clara responded quickly. _And the Order of Andrew rules the texting world?_

_Yes._

_LOL. Well then will you tell her I will tell her about the Thing at school? She'll know what I mean._

_Do I get to know about this?_

_Is this blackmail?_

_Yes._

_Fine, then. I need guy advice and I trust her more than the sugarized one and all my friends are back in Arizona and never really got me anyway._

_Good answer. Very honest. I will tell her._

_Thank you very much, good sir. Bye._

_Bye._

"She says she'll talk to you about the 'Thing' at school."

"I hope you didn't make her tell you."

"Maybe."

"Meanie face."

"Very mature," Emmi muttered from her seat on the couch.

"Well it wasn't nice of Andrew," Kendra said.

"Can we not do the drama junk tonight?" Christian said. "We've got two hours left and I'll fall asleep if you guys are going to turn into a soap opera."

"Fine." Alyssa held her hand out for her phone.

"No way."

"But—!"

"Nope."

Andrew kept the phone until everyone left. Then he headed to his room to crash.

Just before he conked out Andrew heard his parents and grandparents talking very quietly.

"If they're going to write these books there's no reason we're in danger because of Andrew."

"They don't work like that, sweetie…"

Andrew fought sleep but for the first time ever, he lost. All night he dreamt of red-eyed vampires.


	10. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
February 16

Andrew woke up to silence. His parents weren't in the house. He didn't hear the vampires breathing.

He wandered the house almost silently. He found himself in the study. There were papers on the desk. He picked them up, getting a weird vibe from the situation. Why would anyone leave these out? Usually everything was kept in a certain place.

_December 3_

_Salutations, Cullens and Blacks,_

_The point you have presented to us is fair. However, that measure was taken to prevent Discovery. Your situation is another matter entirely…_

Andrew read the letter, with growing disbelief. It was from the Volturi. His family had been communicating with them without telling him.

_The hybrid in question is most definitely the only of its kind and thus presents a danger to our entire world because it did not perish in early existence as was expected._

_It has been a pleasure corresponding with you._

_Aro_

_Marcus_

_Caius_

Andrew dropped the letter and ran. He _needed_ to find somewhere safe. Away. _Far, far away._

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Andrew knew he could never run far enough.Running wouldn't make him full human or full wolf or full vampire permanently. Something _not_ dangerous.

He found himself in the woods where he had ditched Faith and Amy. Ever since that day things had gone bad!

There were sharp pains at the base of his spine and in his fingertips. Fine! He welcomed the change! The tail he could do without, but the _claws_! _Those let him destroy stuff!_

Lashing out at the trees, Andrew felt more wolf-like than he ever had before. His heart pounded rapidly and his temperature spiked. The area was getting thinner by the second.

_What am I doing? This is something they'd kill us for!_

"Andy!"

"Drewy!"

_SERIOUSLY?_

"Stay away!" Andrew growled, knowing they could hear.

"Where are you?" Faith shouted. Andrew could hear Amy's heartbeat and knew she was in wolf form, smelling him out.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Andrew jumped twenty feet straight up and latched onto a tree with his claws. He started jumping from tree to tree, realizing that the sun was farther west than he thought it should have been. How long had he been out here?

Slowly the cool air calmed him and the claws and tail sank back into nonexistence and he ran out of trees.

Where was he? It didn't matter, he just started walking. He was a ways away from home. Not that he wanted to be there.

Eventually Andrew found a Cold Stone. The sun wasn't quite going down yet, his wallet was miraculously still his pocket and there was an ice cream shop right in front of him. The math wasn't hard to do.

He saw her right away. Her scent hit him harder than anyone else's scent in the shop. It sort of reminded him of the beach…

"Hey, Clara." She was standing at the back of the line, apparently pondering the selections of ice cream.

"Andrew," Clara smiled. Then frowned. Why was she frowning? "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well you ditched school, never answered your phone and now me of all people runs into you and you look like you fell into a ditch loaded with dirt and bark. Anything you want to share?" Clara's eyes bore into him, like she was seeing right into his soul. He suddenly really wanted to tell her.

"Um… I found out this family secret by accident. It freaked me out and I just started running," Andrew heard himself saying. "I kind of hung out in the woods."

"And apparently a tree or two took a bit out of you."

"More the other way around." They were suddenly at the front of the line. Both ordered and got their ice cream quickly. They went to sit outside.

"Well, I hope the tree was OK seeing as how you aren't."

"It's that obvious?" Andrew said dryly.

"No. I'm just good like that," Clara smiled sadly. "It's like… well, never mind. But seriously, what are you going to do about this Secret? Will your parents know you know?"

"Definitely." His scent would be on the letter.

"And what will you do? And the answer better not be 'ditch school again' because that made a lot of people very upset."

"Oh, really? Like who?"

"Like all of your friends. Especially the crazy 'twins'." Clara laughed and Andrew felt a little happier because of it. "They complained their entertainment was missing and told me stories all day. That was actually really quite fun."

Uh-oh. "Stories? What stories?"

"Sorry, I'm sworn to secrecy about that until further notice."

"Really?"

"No. But you still haven't even thought about what you're going to do."

"How do you know that?"

"It's… a story for another time. And also not something I tell everyone."

"But you'll tell me?"

"Yes," Clara tilted her head, studying him. "There's something about you I can trust… and also something I can't… though I can't figure out what that is."

Andrew shrugged. "Beats me."

Clara shrugged, too. "Now back to your situation…"

Andrew gave her an exasperated look. "I'll go back and they'll know. Then there will be a big Family Meeting. They'll probably contact the rest of the family at some point and it will go from there."

Clara reached over and touched Andrew's arm. "Relax." Amazingly enough, Andrew did. What was this girl _doing_?

"They care about you. You care about them. It was wrong for them to keep whatever this big Secret is but you'll all work through it. You just need to not run away." Her eyes were doing that soul-seeing thing again.

"Andrew," A voice came from behind him.

"Cody?" Andrew asked.

"JJ," the nineteen year old corrected.

"Sorry," Andrew shrugged. "I should be able to tell you two apart but…"

"No problem." His eyes shifted to Clara. "Hi."

"Hello," Clara was suddenly very reserved.

"Clara, this is JJ Call. JJ, this is Clara de la Cruz." JJ was one of Amy's brothers. He and his twin, Cody, were both wolves.

"Nice to meet you," Clara said softly.

"You too," JJ looked at Andrew. "Your parents asked me to get you to come back. I have my car in the lot."

_Very subtle_, Andrew thought wryly. "All right." He stood.

Clara stood up, too. "You'll be there tomorrow, right?"

"I should be…"

Clara gave him a look. "Let me see your phone."

"I don't have it."

"Of course… do you have one?" She asked JJ. JJ surrendered it and Clara did something. "My number is in his contacts. Text or call or something in the morning if you're not coming. Otherwise I'm assuming you are."

"Got it," Andrew smiled. Clara smiled back, her eyes sparkling. Then she turned and walked down the sidewalk right out of sight.

"Wow," JJ shook his head.

"What?"

"You picked up _her_?"

"No," Andrew frowned. He wished. Clara de la Cruz was definitely something else.

And that was from someone/thing that ran with wolves _and_ vampires. 


	11. Chapter 9

Chapter 9  
February 16

Renesmee hadn't moved for several hours. She would have gone after Andrew but Jake had advised her to let him be.

Edward had been all for going out and searching. But he couldn't because of the sparkling-in-the-sunlight thing. And Andrew had gone out of Edward's hearing range.

Then the girls had come over for reasons they had never gotten around to. They had seen how worried the three were and got it out of Jacob. Then they had gone to look for him, despite Jacob's request not to. Jacob avoided Alpha-ordering whenever he could. Besides, they weren't in wolf form anyway.

Now JJ, one of Amy's brothers, was bringing Andrew home.

Renesmee finally moved and felt her blood circulation going back to normal. Tonight would be difficult. Friday night, not so much.

So right now, she'd focus on tonight.

"Are you OK?" Jacob came up soundlessly behind her.

"I'm not sure… Who knows how upset he is."

"He does have the were-wolf mood swing going," Jacob agreed uneasily. "Is that the Tacoma?"

Renesmee listened. She wasn't much attuned to the sound of the Call teenagers' car. "I _think_ so. It sort of sounds like a Toyota."

"It is. 4.0-liter _1GR-FE_ V6. You can't mistake it for anything else."

Renesmee rolled her eyes. "Says the original Mr. Goodwrench."

"He isn't quite that old," Edward called from the study. He was going over the old letters from the Volturi yet again. "But it is their truck."

JJ watched Andrew walk up to the house and go inside before driving away. It had taken him too long to find Andrew the first time around. He didn't want to try again.

Andrew knew in an instant who was in the house and where. Edward in the study, Mom and Dad in the living room. Funny how the smells didn't hit him as hard as Clara's had, though…

He walked towards his parents, remembering Clara's words. _You just need not to run away._

"Andrew," his mom said weakly.

"It's OK, Mom." He said quietly. "I'm back."

Renesmee was hugging him in an instant. He could feel his shirt getting a little wet from her tears.

Jacob put a hand on Nessie's back. "Let's go sit."

"No," Nessie said shakily. "Andrew, go take a shower. You're all covered in tree and dirt."

"Do some damage to the environment?" Jacob tried to look stern. "You'll have to replant any trees you destroyed, you know."

Andrew tried to keep a straight face. "Yes sir. Now if you'll excuse me." He saluted, turned on his heel and marched upstairs. Then he and Jacob burst out laughing when he reached the upper floor.

Edward brought in the letters to the living room, smiling and shaking his head at the antics. "Here they are. Am I staying or not?"

"I'd like you to," Renesmee said.

"Jacob?"

Jacob shrugged. "I think we should ask Andrew. It's mostly him you would need to listen to."

"I would be listening in on everyone, though, to make sure we did not miss anything needed to be discussed. I know you don't enjoy it when I'm in your head."

"To put it lightly," Jacob thought for a moment. "I'm going to leave it up to Andrew."

Renesmee went to get something to drink from the kitchen. Animal blood from the secret compartment or maybe some soda…

"That stuff is bad for your human side, Renesmee." Edward said, sounding like the father he was.

"I'm a big girl, Daddy," Renesmee reminded him. "Do you two want anything?"

Jacob came in the kitchen. He got a couple small pitchers and filled one with blood and the other with soda.

Andrew came down. They all sat in the living room

"Drink?" Edward asked.

"No thanks," Andrew said. "How about information?"

Jacob nodded and began explaining.

"We've been writing to the Volturi ever since you were born, trying to prevent another visit from them. At first we used the angle that you might not survive because, well, werewolves and vampires aren't supposed to mix."

"So you never really believed it?"

Jacob looked at Edward.

Edward took over. "We weren't sure. So Jacob and Renesmee took you here. A sunny place where they could have as much time with you as possible."

So they did think it.

"Sometimes," Edward admitted. "But until recently it seemed that your wolf and vampire sides were at peace."

"What?" Renesmee asked. "They aren't?" She looked at Andrew for an explanation.

"That's not what we're talking about right now," Edward said. "We then moved on to the fact that you aren't a danger."

And then he had gone and done all this.

"But you got back in control," Edward said. "Control is a difficult thing. Trust me. I had to exercise it around Bella for years. The Volturi respect control, however grudgingly."

"So I'm being raised here because you thought I'd die?" Andrew asked his parents.

"Only at first," Renesmee hurried to reassure him. "But the family was getting too big up north anyway. We were going to be noticed in a negative way soon."

"And that would bring them running," Jacob said. "Although I'd like to fight a few leeches I don't want to put any of you in danger."

"So what happens if they come?" Andrew asked.

"Alice will see it," Edward said. "And there are too many wolves around here not to notice it. And the rest can come quickly."

Andrew nodded. "Are we done for the night? I did my sort of explosion thing earlier and it always drains me."

"Of course, sweetie," Renesmee said. "If you think of any more questions or anything just let us know."

Or Edward would.

"True," Edward chuckled.

"Wait, what about the peace thing?" Jacob demanded. "Andrew, are you having a wolf-vampire battle?"

"Sometimes," Andrew admitted. "But my human side always wins."

"What is it exactly?" Jacob pressed.

Andrew frowned. "When I get close to a full vampire I get this urge to hurt something. Usually."

"Usually?" Renesmee asked.

"I didn't get it tonight. But Grandpa has been staying here for a few days," Andrew shrugged. "I think it's because I'm not around full vampires too often. I _am_ usually around werewolves."

"You had similar urges at first, Jacob." Edward said. "Not as strong, but I think that's because Andrew has vampire in his blood so he reacts more strongly to it. It makes him more aware."

Jacob nodded. Then he actually noticed how tired his son looked. "Sorry, Andrew. Curiosity killed the dog I guess."

"That makes no sense," Edward said. "And I can see the thought behind it."

"I'm going to bed." Andrew announced. He trudged up the stairs and flipped off his bedroom lights.

Dang it, his phone was still on. He reached for it.

_18 msgs_, the screen read.

Four from Kendra and Alyssa each. One from Christian. Two from some random friends. Three from Amy. Three from Faith.

One from an unknown number.

_Hey its Clara. Srry this is so l8. (got the number from a friend) Don't forget,__ no running__. C u at school._

That woke him up slightly. Who had given her his number? Why had she cared enough to make sure he faced his problems? They had met what, a week ago? Not even that, Andrew realized. Five days. Five days that had felt like a heck of a long time…

"By the way, Daddy," Renesmee said, looking at the clock after Andrew went upstairs. "There's someone in the park waiting for you."

Edward's face brightened as he realized her meaning. He was out the door in a flash, one thought in his mind : _Bella_.

"You know, Nessie," Jacob said, kissing Renesmee softly. "Andrew's probably asleep by now…"

"NO HE ISN'T!" Andrew yelled down. Ugh… just what he needed to think about right now. Not right before he went to sleep. Grrr… Curse eternal love at first sight!


	12. Chapter 10

Chapter 10  
February 17

"ANDREW!" Alyssa and Kendra tackled him as soon as he saw him.

"WHERE WERE YOU?" Kendra hit his arm.

"Clara wouldn't tell us," Alyssa pouted.

Andrew looked at Clara, who had taken to joining them in the Corner of Weird in the mornings and at breaks, like now.

She shrugged. "It was your business and I didn't know if you wanted it spread around."

"Thanks," Andrew smiled. He was a little surprised when Clara's face turned a little pink. He turned back to the 'twins' somewhat reluctantly. "It was just a family issue. I needed a break that involved an extremely long walk in the woods that lasted most of the day."

Christian finally showed up along with Emmi. "Hey guys, what's happening?" Christian asked.

"Not much," Andrew said.

"Aw dang it," Clara muttered.

"What?" Andrew asked.

"Left my binder in my last class. I need to go get it," Clara picked up her binder. "I'll see you all later since the bell will ring before I get back." She started walking away.

Andrew watched her for a second. Then grabbed his stuff and followed, ignoring whatever was said.

"Hey, thought you might use some company." _And for some weird reason, I couldn't just watch you walk away._

"Company's always good," Clara smiled. "Especially with someone like yourself."

"Meaning?"

Clara shrugged and turned pink again. "You're just nice to be with, that's all. Like I said, there's something about you I can trust."

"And something you can't," Andrew suddenly recalled.

"Did I say that?" Clara asked.

"You did. What is it?"

"I can't tell you that," Clara bit her lip.

"Why not?" Andrew asked trying to sound pathetic.

"Because…" Clara hesitated. "I just can't."

"Aww, that makes me sad," Andrew teased.

"Hmm, well I can tell you something else. We trade that secret for this one," Clara suggested.

"OK," Andrew agreed.

"Well… sometimes I can… sort of see into people and get them to do what I want." Clara laughed nervously. "Think I'm crazy?"

"No," Andrew laughed. "I've heard weirder."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Like what?" Clara asked, her eyes doing that boring-right-into-you thing.

"Are you trying it now?"

"Yeah," Clara admitted. They had reached the classroom. Clara retrieved the binder and they hurried back outside.

"So what's the weirder thing you've seen?" Clara asked. She wasn't doing the eye thing but Andrew felt the urge to tell her anyway.

"Mind readers, psychics, emotion tamper-ers."

"Sounds like Starlight," Clara frowned.

Uh-oh. "Hmm you're right. But really I do know people like that. I can't disclose their identities under penalty of death, but I do."

"You're teasing me."

"I'm not!" Andrew looked right into her eyes. "I swear on my life I would never tease you about something you trusted me with."

Clara couldn't look away from Andrew. She couldn't figure out what he did but he made her want to tell him everything and then some. But that why she couldn't trust him, she was falling too fast and too hard. If she did trust him there wouldn't be any turning back and the fact he could make her want to trust him with so much meant that he could also easily break her heart.

"What are you thinking?" Andrew asked. He could see something in her eyes. Pain? "What's wrong?"

The bell saved Clara from answering. She said bye quickly and left Andrew stunned in her wake.

What was up with him? It was like the center of the universe had shifted, the new focus being this girl he had known for a week.

_And I don't think it can ever go back to how it was_, Andrew realized.


	13. Chapter 11

Chapter 11  
February 18

Andrew was eavesdropping on the girls at lunch. They were sitting on a bench outside having what they called 'No Boys Day'. He was in the classroom right next to them and the window was open so he could hear clearly. Christian was home sick and Andrew had been bored before he started listening in.

"Friday s are the best days," Emmi said.

"Agreed," Kendra said sleepily.

"Hey wasn't your puppy in a dog show yesterday?" Alyssa suddenly asked.

"That's right," Emmi said. "He's so sweet! He got 'Cutest Eyes'."

"I still need to see him," Clara said. "I've been to everyone's house but yours, Christian's and Andrew's."

"He is the sweetest thing ever," Emmi gushed. "Well… unless you're not a dog person."

"No, I'm _totally_ a dog person. I'm an animal person in general, actually," Clara sounded like she was smiling.

"OK, that so isn't an 'I'm thinking about puppies and kitties' smile," Emmi said. "What's on your mind?"

"Um…" Clara hesitated.

"It's her business," Alyssa jumped in.

"You know?" Kendra asked.

"Yes, and only Clara can tell you and _only_ if she wants to."

What did she know?

"But—" Kendra began.

"No," Alyssa told her.

"It's OK," Clara told her. "Maybe they can help us figure it out."

"What?" Emmi asked, anxious to know.

Andrew heard Clara inhale deeply and realized he was holding his breath but didn't do anything about it.

"I like someone," Clara said. "A lot. And I don't know what to do about it. I kind of have a hard time trusting guys with enough power to hurt me."

"Who is it?" Kendra asked.

Andrew heard Clara's voice whisper something but couldn't make it out. Then Kendra's and Emmi's high pitched squeals almost burst his eardrums.

"Really?"

"OMG!"

Did Kendra _really_ just text-speak? He didn't think people actually _did_ that.

"Yeah…" Clara sighed.

"He's kind of annoying," Emmi said. "But he isn't a bad guy."

"I don't think he's a bad choice at all," Alyssa remarked. "He's always been the kind you can trust."

"Why would you be afraid of trusting him?"

"It's just a thing with me."

"Hey, Andrew, how's it going?" Ritchie appeared out of nowhere.

"Shh," Andrew hissed. "I'm listening to them," he gestured out of the window.

"Ahh," Ritchie nodded. "Have fun." He walked out of the room."

"Hey, girls."

"Hi Ritchie," they all chirped. Then Ritchie headed off and the conversation resumed.

"Do you all want to come over to my house tonight?" Emmi asked. "Clara can see my puppy and we can talk in private. You never know who's listening around here."

Did she know? No, Emmi would have busted him…

All the girls whipped out their cell phones and within minutes the plans were formed.

Andrew made plans of his own, too.

More eavesdropping.


	14. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

February 18

6 PM

Andrew texted Alyssa a little bit before leaving. _Whatcha up to?_

_Hanging at Emmi's._

_Cool._

_Yeps._

"Andrew, time to go," Renesmee called.

"What?" Did she know what she was planning? There was NO way she'd approve of it.

"There's a meeting tonight, remember?"

Andrew headed downstairs into the kitchen, "What meeting?"

"He never found out, babe," Jacob appeared at the back door. "He wanted to go to bed."

"Will you two please explain?"

"The Bloodsucker Committee wants us to go to Italy for the summer in order for them to… um, make a decision," Jacob said.

"The Volturi? How could you forget to tell me that?"

"You were tired." Renesmee said.

"And the past two days haven't been enough time?"

"Don't talk to your mother like that," Jacob reprimanded Andrew. "We need to go talk to the pack. No one likes this idea. It all goes back to what Edward said about them trying to pick us off separately."

"What? When did he say that?"

"Jake, remember? I wasn't even a year old yet and we haven't told Andrew every little detail about that episode," Renesmee reminded Jacob.

"Right," Jacob took a deep breath. "We'll tell you the whole story one day, in order, but it was a time when they thought your mother was a threat and went to Forks."

A billion little remarks or glances between his family members suddenly made sense to Andrew. "OK, then." So much for his plans.

_**Later**_

The whole pack was here plus all the Cullens.

The pack here in Temecula had nine wolves not including Jacob. There was Seth, who was Jacob's beta now that Leah had quit her wolf. Leah was married to a werewolf, Tad Garwood. They had two kids, Faith and Rowan. Obviously Faith was a werewolf and her brother, Rowan, was, too.

Quil had finally married Claire and they were expecting a baby that would most likely be a wolf like his or her dad.

Embry had imprinted on a girl named Valerie two years after the Volturi and gone to and been chased from Forks. They were JJ, Cody, and Amy's parents. (All three were wolves.) JJ and Cody were an interest to Carlisle as the first pair of twin werewolves. It made his theory stronger that any child of a werewolf (whether male or female) would have the gene and the gene would be activated if enough time was spent around vampires because JJ turned nearly a year before Cody.

So all the wolves were Jacob, Seth, Tad, Faith, Rowan, Quil, Embry, JJ, Cody, and Amy.

"We all know why we're here," Jacob said. "Now what are we going to do about it?"

No one spoke for a long moment.

"Alice, can you see what happens if we go?" Renesmee asked.

"Nessie, you know I can't," Alice sighed. "All three of you are hybrids."

"Can't you see around them?"Seth asked. "Like, look at Andrew's human friends a year from now?"

Alice frowned, thinking. "I can try… Jazz, will you come with me? I think I need to be away from a crowd and relaxed."

"Alice," Bella jumped in. "No matter what, DO NOT pull another one of those stunts!"

"I promised I'd never do that again, Bella," Alice pretended to be offended.

"Alice," Bella warned.

"I won't!" With that, Alice hugged Bella and she and Jazz were gone within a second.

Bella muttered something and Edward put his arm around her. "She won't. Now," he addressed everyone else. "I don't like the idea of the three of them going to Italy. We need an alternative solution that also keeps the Volturi away from our homes."

Everyone fell to debating. It soon became apparent that there were two different main ideas.

1: Call together the group from last time and take them down for good. Emmett, Tad, Rowan, Quil, Embry, JJ, and Cody were all for this.

2: Have them go, but shadow them to ensure safety. Rose, Esme, Seth, Faith, Amy, Bella, and Carlisle wanted to go for this one.

Edward sat with his head bowed, listening to all the thoughts as well as the words. He knew that neither of these plans would work well. He reached out with his mind, looking for Alice. What was she seeing?

_He felt Jasper's influence on Alice's emotions as she searched the future. She wasn't having much success. Her frustration was beginning to break through Jasper's calming effect. "Jazz, I can't do this. I haven't met any of Andrew's friends."_

"_Search the weather for the next week."_

_There was a pause. "It will be cold. Gloomy. Not much sunlight…"_

_Very good,_ Edward thought. Jasper's idea was a good one.

"Excuse me," He said. Half of the group turned to look at him. "Alice and Jasper are coming back. They have a new angle for us to consider."

Everyone was listening by then. Alice and Jasper appeared in a few minutes.

"Edward, I assume you know?" Jasper asked.

"Yes, but I thought I would let you do the honors."

Jasper nodded. "Alice couldn't see the humans a year from now because she hasn't been around them."

"So I checked the local weather and it's going to be unusually and conventiently gloomy for the next week," Alice announced.

"So you're going to hang around me and my friends for a week?" Andrew realized.

"It's the only way I can get a grasp on their futures," Alice shrugged. "I can disguise myself and sneak into your school and so on blah, blah, blah."

_My aunt is going to be watching me at school,_ Andrew groaned internally. _Edward, don't say a word,_ he thought fiercely.

"So it's settled then," Edward said. "Alice will become friends with Andrew's friends and we can delay decisions until further notice."

"If the humans are abnormal enough to not mind hanging out with a vampire," Seth snorted. "No offense, Alice. You know I have no problems with you-all but humans tend to shy away from vampires. And the Forks-like weather won't last long enough for them to get used to you to be around you enough for you to _see_ them."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Seth, trust me. That _won't_ be a problem."

"Are you sure?" Alice frowned. "Seth _is _right. Only Bella ever seemed to be comfortable with vampires right away and she was rather… special. Normal humans avoid us."

"I'm positive. My friends are_ nowhere _nearnormal."


	15. Chapter 13

Chapter 13  
February 21

"Hey, guys," Andrew said. "Did you get my text?" He asked Kendra, who was behind the wheel of her car on Monday morning.

"Yeah, yeah. We have room. Where is she? We're all dying to meet your cousin."

"How is she related to you?" Emmi asked.

"She's my Uncle Edward and Aunt Bella's daughter," Andrew lied smoothly. "Alice, hurry up!" He called at the house.

Right on cue Alice walked gracefully out of the house. They had decided not to disguise her just in case they could use that against the Volturi later in case they ended up going to Europe for the summer and needed ammo.

"Hello, everyone," Alice said softly when she reached the car.

Everyone said hi in some form or another and Andrew and Alice slipped into the car. Time to go get Clara.

Andrew made introductions and then watched as Alice intergrated easily into his friends. Not one of them shied away like normal humans would have. Well they were called the Crazies for a reason…

"Any chance you like Starlight, Alice?" Alyssa asked. Kendra's eyes flickered briefly to the vampire in the rearview mirror as she pulled into Clara's driveway.

"Oh yes," Alice laughed. "I've only read it about eight thousand times. I can't wait for Daytime Darkness. Only one more month!"

"Really? That's awesome! I'm hoping all of them will be out by summer. There're supposed to be four, right?"

"Right. I heard somewhere that the stories are all ready but the publishers are keeping us in suspense so that more people will read them," Alice rolled her eyes in 'annoyance'.

"What are we talking about?" Clara asked as she climbed in. She was quickly filled in. "Oh I love those stories! Especially the werewolves. But I'm totally convinced that the whole 'vampires and werewolves always hate each other thing' is a load of trash on the characters' parts. They could get along if they tried."

"Oh, yes," Alice agreed quickly, catching Andrew's eye. "They definitely could."

"Can we stop talking about this?" Christian groaned.

"Spare us," Emmi added.

"I'm with those two," Andrew said.

"Fine…" Alice mock pouted. "Emmi, where did you get that necklace? It's absolutely gorgeous…"  
2/24

For the next three days Andrew watched his 'cousin' become attuned to his friends with an odd feeling of detachment. And even odder sensations of jealousy when Clara and Alice became attached at the hip.

The two did everything together! Alice even took Clara shopping, which, of course, lasted from the minute school ended until late at night. Of course, Clara didn't get in trouble with her parents for being out late with such a sweet, responsible friend vouching for her.

Andrew thought he had hidden his annoyance well… until Jasper called him on it on Thursday. (The Cullens were hanging around until the final decision about summer was made.)

"Come with me, Andrew," Jasper said moments after Andrew walked in the door after school. Andrew frowned but followed his great-uncle until they were out of ear (and mind) shot of the house.

"Why are you upset with Alice?" Jasper asked evenly. "We're helping." His gold eyes bored into similar to the way Clara's could, though not nearly as strong.

Feelings of security enveloped Andrew. Why not tell Jasper? He was trustworthy…

"Cut that out."

The security disappeared. "My apologies. That was uncalled for."

"It was," Andrew agreed dryly. Dang vampire powers. He decided to tell Jasper anyway. "She's just getting really close to Clara."

Jasper was surprised. He hadn't expected that. "Yes, she told me about that one. Clara's future is… hazy. Naturally Alice is intrigued." Jasper was picking up on something. There was an undercurrent of emotion in Andrew that was extremely strong, but the boy seemed unaware of it. He swore he had 'felt' this before but every time he was close to grasping it, it slipped away.

"Hazy?" Andrew demanded. "Like she might be hurt?"

Holy…! Jasper knew what _that_ was!

"Like she has a lot of choices to make and outside influences that are affecting or soon will affect her," Jasper managed to say evenly.

"I need to talk to her…" Andrew muttered to himself. He needed to get her alone so that she would tell him about what was going on. "Listen, Jasper, I'm sorry about Alice. It'll get better. But I need to go text her or something." Obviously 'her' being Clara.

"All right," Jasper nodded. He needed to talk to Edward. He walked with Andrew a ways back then he stopped and Andrew kept going.

_Edward_, Jasper thought as loudly as he could. He reached out with this gift and made Edward feel paranoid. _If you're paying attention to something besides your mate for once I need to speak with you NOW_.

A couple minutes later Edward's form came from the house and moved at inhuman speed towards Jasper. The sun was just setting so some rainbows bounced off of both vampires as they headed towards the spot that Jasper and Andrew had been at shortly before.

"What's wrong, Jazz?"

Jasper thought about the conversation that he had just had with Andrew, including the emotional impressions he had received.

Edward's eyes widened in shock. "So we were wrong."

"Do we tell them? I don't think that even Andrew knows."

Edward thought about this. "Andrew has a thing about having choices. This could be another thing that seems to be forced on him."

"But they never seem unhappy about it."

"Very true. But we should give it some more time. He might realize it for himself."

Jasper nodded. "Are we putting a time frame on this?"

"About a month?"

"Agreed."


	16. Chapter 14

Chapter 14  
February 25

He was meeting her here in the park. It had been a minimum day and they had agreed to meet here after Clara was done talking to a teacher about something.

Andrew needed to find out what was going on that could be jepordizing Clara's future. He couldn't let anything happen to her.

There was a soft noise behind him and Andrew smelled the ocean. "Hey, Clara."

"How'd you know it was me?" Clara laughed.

"I'm good like that," Andrew smiled.

Clara sat next to him on the bench. "So what's up?"

Andrew hesitated. "This is going to sound really weird."

"OK?"

"Has anything… happened lately that seems really out of place or even dangerous?" Andrew's eyes held Clara's and he saw the answer there before she responded.

"No, nothing dangerous. And anything out of place has already been there for a couple weeks so it's become normal." Clara tilted her head a little, studying Andrew. Where was he going with this? Had any of the girls told him that she liked him? A _lot_? Like, too much so to have only known the boy for two weeks?

"Are you sure?" His eyes seemed darker than usual. Clara had a hunch that there was something extremely urgent behind this.

"Of course I'm sure. I don't exactly make a habit out of hanging out with dangerous people or anything."

_Dangerous people_, Andrew realized. _I'm the one who's causing the haze._

But what did that mean?

"You're really hard to read, you know," Clara remarked. "And since you're in on my getting-my-way thing, I can't _make_ you do anything. So you're just going to have to tell me what you're thinking."

"Oh?"

"Mmhmm." Clara looked at him expectantly.

"Yeah, I don't think so."

"That's not fair," Clara mock-pouted.

"You still haven't told me that other thing you traded your eye-secret for," Andrew pointed out.

"Touché."

It was quiet for a moment, each waiting to see if the other would crack.

Eventually Clara sighed dramatically. "It's no use. We're both too stubborn for our own good. I suppose we'll die without knowing the other's secret."

"Guess so," Andrew made himself laugh. He had actually considered telling Clara that _he_ was dangerous. That bothered him. It was like he wanted her to know about everything, like it wouldn't put her life in danger if she knew it all. As is she could be like Claire or Valerie.

"What's wrong, Andrew?" Clara touched his arm. She concentrated and suddenly the world took on a slightly different feel.

It was like her very soul turned into liquid and merged with the world around her. She focused it on Andrew's soul and felt herself merge with him. Clara projected her desire for him to tell her what the matter was.

Clara could feel that she was stronger this time. Was it because they were touching?

"Clara," Andrew shook his head sharply and Clara withdrew.

"Sorry."

"That was… weird."

"I've never been that dominant before," Clara admitted. "I could sense that you were going to tell me."

"If I hadn't been wise to you I would have," Andrew said dryly. He was secretly panicking. This gift was strong. Too strong. If the Volturi found her she would be forced into the vampire life for sure.

"Want to walk?" He asked.

"Sure. I need to start walking home soon, actually." Her parents were working at the electrical company all weekend.

"I'll walk with you. I live right up the road, remember?"

_Of course I remember,_ Clara thought. "Oh, that's right."

They started in the direction of their houses, talking about nothing in particular. They reached Andrew's house first.

"So I guess I'll see you Monday?" Clara asked.

"Right," Andrew smiled a little. There were pack-Cullen meetings all weekend otherwise he'd say he'd see her sooner…

It looked like Clara wanted to say something else but she just smiled and headed home.

Andrew headed inside. What to do… Maybe challenge Emmett to a wrestling match? He'd been around the vampires long enough that the violent urges were all but gone now.

Clara hummed to herself as she unlocked her front door and let herself in. It wasn't uncommon for her parents to have to stay at work for the weekend. Sometimes it got lonely but then she'd turn on some music and text someone.

Pulling out her phone, Clara considered texting Andrew but changed her mind and put in Emmi's contact ID instead.

"I'll take that."

Clara started to scream but an ice cold hand covered her mouth and an arm held her to what felt like a human shaped boulder behind her.

A beautiful, pale woman was standing in front of her. She casually crushed the cell phone she had just swiped.

"You're… powerful." The woman's voice was mesmerizing. "Zavan, change of plans. Let's _all_ go back to the Cullen house up north. We can find out the answers to you questions and make a new friend."

A second arm wrapped around Clara's neck and squeezed.

_Ten seconds,_ Clara thought. _Ten seconds if the movies are right._ She tried to merge with the souls of these people. But… there were walls around them. She couldn't merge with them.

_How are they blocking me?_

The last thing Clara saw was a pair of bright red eyes.


	17. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

February 25

"Ha! Got ya!" Andrew crowed in victory. He had just pinned Emmett!

"Best of three," the irritated vampire growled.

"Bring it."

Alice froze, images taking over her sight.

Red eyes. The old house by Forks. A blurry figure of… a human girl?

"Carlisle!"

Zavan ran ahead of Jaleen, who was carrying the human who smelled so strange. He wanted to find out why that was. It was Zavan's personal goal to document all living species in the world. He had all of eternity to do it, too.

But Jaleen had sensed power. So once his questions were answered, the girl would probably be changed.

They'd reach the legendary Cullen house by nightfall. He and Jaleen had been staying there for a while.

They ran on, Zavan shielding them from any nearby minds. He could shield himself and one other, but no more.

"Emmett! Andrew! Knock it off! We have to get to Forks," Alice shrieked. Then she groaned. "Nooooooo!"

The sun came out, making the two vampires throw rainbows. All three rushed indoors.

"What'd you see, Alice?" Emmett demanded. He was miffed. He had been winning when Alice had started yelling at them.

"Two vampires kidnapped a human. When I try to see what originally led them to her, it's hazy. That's why I didn't see them sooner. They're headed to our house by Forks and will be there by nightfall," Alice trilled almost too quickly for anyone to keep up with. They were all crowded around her by now.

"Hazy?" Edward asked. "Show me."

Alice complied and Edward inhaled sharply.

"That's the same haze you see with things pertaining to Andrew."

Eight gold and two brown pairs of eyes turned to that boy.

"They have one of my friends."

Jaleen was jubilant. This girl, when changed, would be the ultimate weapon. Better than Jane, Alec, Benjamin or Kate.

Jaleen's gift was to detect gifts in others, like Eleazar. But if she remained in contact with the object, she could see every detail of their gift. Every potential.

And she had _potential_.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"We don't have enough cars and the sun just came out," Carlisle said, his voice tight with distress.

"Mom! Dad! We need to go!"

"We _can_," Nessie realized. "Our car isn't tinted but we don't sparkle."

"Bella, call Seth." Jacob said, grabbing the keys from the counter. "Tell them to follow. And to tell Sam on the way."

"LET'S GO!" 


	18. Chapter 16

Chapter 16  
2/25

Clara opened her eyes.

"Welcome back," A musical, masculine voice said.

Warily, Clara focused on the man. He had walls around his soul that she was sure he was purposely putting up.

"We have questions for you," he smiled warmly, pushing up the corners of his eyes. His crimson eyes. "Please don't be afraid."

"Not afraid of a vampire?" The words left Clara's mouth before she could censor them.

"I am Zavan. Yes, I am a vampire. But I am not here to hurt you. You are a fan of Starlight?"

"Yes."

"Do you realize you smell of werewolves?"

"What?" Clara shook her head. "Werewolves don't exist."

"Neither do vampires. The Volturi documented some of our recent history in the Starlight series. The idea was to make us appear more fictional in order to make us safer. Actually we are in the 'Clemens' old home right now."

"The vegetarian vampire family?" Clara whispered.

"We are being side tracked. The original reason I wanted to speak to you is to find out what on earth you've been around." Zavan breathed deeply. "It smells like salt water, wet dog, and vampire and also plain rust and salt.

"The salt water is dominate so I assume that's your scent. But the combination of werewolf, vampire and human… It's as if Jacob and Renesmee had a child."

"How do you know them?" Those were Andrew's parents. "Why are they important?"

"Jacob, or, as you would know him, Jonathan, is a werewolf. Renesmee, you'll meet her in Setting Sun as Reyna, is Edward and Bella's—Evan and Baily's—daughter," Zavan said casually. "Jacob imprinted on Renesmee. You smell as if they had a child you spend a lot of time with."

Clara's brain was in overdrive. Andrew's family was the star family of the vampire-werewolf series?

She was in love with a vamp-wolf hybrid?

Wait—she was in love?

"Who is it?" Zavan interrupted. "It's my life's mission to document every living species. I must know who the hybrid is."

"You can find out when we go back," the woman was suddenly in the room. "There's something more important here."

Zavan looked disgruntled but was gone in a blink.

"My name is Jaleen. And you, my dear, have incredible potential…"


	19. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The sun was just setting as Jacob, Renesmee and Andrew reached the Cullen's old home. They strained to hear what was going on inside.

"…do you follow?" A female voice said.

"Yes…"

Clara!

"If you choose to join my world, my coven, you could control anyone you meet. You're powerful as a human but you could be immensely— what was that?"

"I smell wolf," a male voice said.

Andrew felt Clara's soul touch his for an instant before it vanished abruptly.

"Hey!" Andrew shouted at the house. "Get where I can see you!"

"Andrew," Jacob put a trembling hand on his son's shoulder to restrain him.

A woman appeared in an open window. "Leave this place!"

"Let the girl go," Jacob ordered.

"She's…sleeping."

A growl escaped Renesmee. "What did you do to her?"

"Gave her information. She _knows_. She's going to join my coven when she wakes. Leave!" The window slammed shut.

The Blacks didn't leave.

Three long hours later the Cullens and the Temecula and La Push packs were assembled in front of the white house. Everyone was waiting on their leader to make a decision.

Sam, Carlisle, and Jacob met together.

J: We have to get in there.

C: But they might kill the girl.

S: That cancels out the rest of us?

C: It has to.

J: But we need to try to rescue her.

C: The risk is high.

S: Not too high.

"NO!" Andrew growled, shocking the three of them. "Nothing. Can. Happen. To. Her."

The werewolves and vampire stood silent.

"It's no use," Edward said suddenly. "There's a shield in there. I can't tell whether there's two or twenty. There is no way to know their weaknesses or if they would kill her. We're at a stalemate."

"The best thing to do is to go on defense," Jasper said. "The wolves surround the house and we wait for their move."

2


	20. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

February 26

Clara's brain slowly began to wake up, but her body didn't move. Some instinct made her remember to appear as though she was still shut down.

Vampires. She was being held captive by vampires. And she was in love with a vampire-werewolf-human hybrid.

Who was outside! She remembered touching his soul but not being able to communicate anything before the woman, Jaleen, had knocked her out. She quickly reached out again.

It was getting even easier. She picked Andrew's soul out of the outside world quickly and commingled with it. Clara was shocked by the intensity of the conflicting desires there. She refocused and projected, wishing she could communicate with words rather than emotions.

Andrew suddenly excited. He was excited because she was OK and… because she wanted to communicate with words?

Oh yeah! If she had the whole Starlight-real-life thing straight, then Edward could read her mind. Was he here?

_There were a lot of people here_, Clara realized as she opened up to the entire world instead of just Andrew.

_So why don't you just storm the place?_ Clara thought. One soul in particular seemed like it was trying to answer her. Must be Edward. He was concerned for her safety? Their numbers?

_There's only two,_ Clara thought, remembering Jaleen and Zavan. The greedy…female dog and the guy who was just curious. _And they can't hurt me without losing something they want badly._

But they still could?

_Maybe,_ Clara thought. _But there are so many of you! And I think that only Jaleen would fight. Zavan just was curious about Andrew._

"She's awake!"

Clara's eyes snapped open but she managed to keep contact with the world as she locked gazes with Jaleen.

"Decision time, girl. Are you ready to be all-powerful?"

Clara was overwhelmed with panic; it took her a second to realize that it wasn't _her_ panic. It was Andrew's.

Then she felt waves of tension. Readiness. The storm was about to happen. But she needed to make some space between her and the red-eyed vampires.

"Wait," Clara stalled. Jaleen paused. "I'm panicking here."

Jaleen's hands curled into fists as she smiled. "OK let's give you some space before you're new life." She walked at a human pace towards the door. "Just stay calm, young one, and everything will be—"

_CRASH!_

Glass flew everywhere as the giant red-brown wolf jumped through the window. Clara scrambled into the corner, trying to keep her eyes on the super-naturals.

Andrew scaled the outside wall of the house with his claws straight to the hole that Jacob had made and jumped through.

"Clara!"

"Andrew!" Why was she curled up in the corner instead of trying to get out of there? The freaking vampire was still in the room!

"You can still get the power, girl!" All eyes turned to the female, who was looking desperately at Clara while staying on guard. "Just say the word and you can have it! These putrid _things_ can't dispute a decision _you_ make. We can _destroy_ them."

It was completely still in the house as Clara sat up. She looked right at Jaleen. "_Destroy_ them?"

"Yes! All your power will be able to do that." Jaleen's voice was coaxing, convincing.

Clara looked right into her crimson eyes. "_Screw you._"

Jaleen ran for it, with Jacob hot on her heels.

Several heartbeats passed in the room as Clara and Andrew just looked at each other, like they were afraid the other might disappear. Andrew stepped over to her, slowly. Clara flinched slightly as the glass crunched. She stood up.

"Are you OK?" Andrew tried to read Clara.

Clara blinked a couple times, trying to clear her head. "Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Um… you were kind of just abducted by vampires and found out the Starlight world is real," Andrew said, looking at Clara like she was slightly crazy.

Clara gasped. "Zavan! Is the…pack going to—"

"No," said a voice by the door. It was Renesmee. "Edward talked to him. The family is working something out. Um, Jaleen isn't a problem anymore."

Andrew suddenly felt brave and reached out and took Clara's hand. "Let's get out of here, then."

Clara willed her heart not to speed up any more than it already had. He must be able to hear it!

They made their way outside. Clara's eyes widened at the crowd. "Um, who are all these people? There aren't this many in the books…"

"Oh," Andrew started pointing towards the different groups with his free hand. "It's because the Temecula pack didn't separate from the La Push pack until about eight years after Setting Sun will take place, the last book in the series. Right now it's about twenty-three years after that book. More wolves joined because of my parents making it impossible for the species to be separate. It just kind of snowballed."

Clara nodded, "Jaleen didn't have a chance."

"Nope. There's about thirty wolves plus the vampires… speaking of which," Andrew turned his head toward the house. "It sounds like they solved the Zavan issue."

"You can hear them?"

"Yeah… I'm kind of a—"

"Human-werewolf-vampire hybrid," Clara finished. "I figured it out after a conversation with Zavan."

"And you're not screaming and running away?"

"You're seriously stealing lines from your grandpa?" Clara smirked a little.

"Yep."

It was quiet for a long moment.

"It's going to be weird going back to normalcy," Clara said quietly, looking at all the people part of the supernatural world, "Pretending that nothing changed. I mean, it hasn't but it has, you know?"

_Pretend that nothing changed?_ Andrew thought. _No freaking way, I can't go back to her not being the reason for my life. Wait, that sounds like… I imprinted…_

"Clara, it has though. It's been changing. Permanently."

Clara's heart kicked into high gear. "What do you mean?"

Andrew looked right into Clara's eyes. "For a long time I thought everything that could make an impact on my life was negative because of what I am. Like comets hurtling towards my world, intent on destruction. Then you showed up. You crashed onto my planet. But instead of destroying it, you made it whole.

"You're my other half. The only thing that's going to keep my heart beating. And I don't want to pretend otherwise."

"You're not going to have to," Clara promised.

"That's saying a lot," a voice suddenly said.

"Alice," Clara said evenly.

"The future with the Volturi just flickered. They're going to be coming after Andrew soon."

"How soon?" Andrew asked.

"This summer. It's a lot of danger, Clara," Alice warned; something looked like a challenge in her gold eyes.

"I couldn't care less. I'm going to be with you," Clara said to Andrew. "Every step. I can't live without you either."

Andrew's face was joyful and triumphant as he pulled Clara into him and wrapped his arms around her.

Nothing would get between them. Not even if Gravity itself started having Glitches…


	21. Gravity Glitches

**Book Two**

**Gravity Glitches**


	22. Gravity Glitches prologue

Prologue

The red, milky eyed vampires made their decision. Closer observation would have to be made. On neutral ground, of course. Not in America nor in Italy. Perhaps Spain. The psychic would see their decision and be expecting their call the next day.

This would be perfect. After all, the only way to regain their lost respect in their world would be to take down this unnatural freak of nature in a 'lawful' manner. Then they could destroy and acquire as they had wished to 24 years ago.


	23. GG Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Andrew, Happy birthday to you!" the Crazies sang as they presented Andrew Black with his birthday cake at the party which, until this moment, Andrew had thought was just a hang out thing celebrating their graduation.

"Really guys, a birthday party?"

"Make a wish," Clara de la Cruz said, squeezing his hand gently.

Andrew smiled; annoyance at the party forgotten as he looked at his imprint. "Don't need to." He reached out and pinched the candles out, one by one. "You're here, aren't you?"

"Always."

Emmi Love cut the cake and put it on plates but before anyone could eat...

"Present time!" Alyssa Spoor and Kendra O'Connell, the "twins", sing-songed.

Andrew's irritation returned, "Really? Don't you guys think you're pushing it?"

"Not in the least," Kendra said.

"Definitely not," Alyssa added.

"Here you go," Emmi, the most normal of the Crazies, handed him a bundle wrapped in pink tissue paper.

"It's a—" Christian Vaughan started to say.

"SHUT IT, Vaughan!" Kendra and Alyssa yelled. Even Emmi looked annoyed.

"I was just kidding."

Clara and Andrew looked at each other, trying not to laugh. Their friends were called Crazy for good reason but they were awesome. It was ironic to Andrew that the humans were usually stranger than him, though...

Andrew opened the gift and started cracking up. "That— is—awesome."

Inside the pink package was a dog toy. And the dog toy was none other than a squirrel.

"Now you have to name it," Clara said.

"His name is Fabio. Fabio-Franchsco-Pualarte-Bob-John-Karton-Charleston Bacon Jr Deluxe-Ballajihad-Derka Derka-Flintsone the 3rd, Ruler of All Things Squirrel."

"Nice," Christian laughed.

"Only you would come up with that," Emmi shook her head.

"Cake time!" Alyssa said.

"It's chocolate," Kendra added.

All the others looked at each other as the girls reached for the plates with their cake slices and simultaneously yelled, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" In a heartbeat, Andrew had jumped up, stolen the cake, threw it back on the table and pushed the girls onto the couch in his garage, (where they were hanging), as far from the chocolate as possible.

Then he realized his mistake as he heard total and utter silence from Christian, Emmi and Clara.

Only Clara knew about what he was, about the supernatural world. The 'Starlight' world. The rest didn't. And couldn't. And he had just moved WAY too fast for a human.

"Good going, bro," Christian said suddenly. "No use giving them chocolate."

Emmi looked at him like he was crazy. "But he—"

"Aw come on!" Alyssa and Kendra protested, like nothing was out of the ordinary.

"No way," Andrew said, trying to salvage the oddly only slightly damaged situation. "Let's get you out of here."

"But—" Emmi protested. But everyone hurried upstairs before she could say anything more.

Clara stayed later than the rest of the group. "That was close."

"What was?" Renesmee Black, Andrew's mom appeared in the room. Clara and Andrew recapped what happened.

"But the weird part was that it was almost like Christian, Kendra and Alyssa KNOW," Clara said at the end.

"Well," Renesmee said thoughtfully, "Daddy did say that the girls suspected because of the books."

"That doesn't explain Christian, though," Andrew said. "He hates Starlight."

"But the girls were probably made even more aware because of the movies," Clara said.

"Still doesn't explain Christian..." Andrew reminded them. "He's been acting really weird lately, though. Whenever we all go somewhere it seems like he's looking for someone."

"Ask him," Clara suggested. "I have to go home now, though. See you tomorrow?"

"Of course."

"Clara," Renesmee said, "Don't forget you-know-what."

"Not a way in the world," Clara laughed.

"What am I missing here?" Andrew asked.

"Nothing," Clara smiled innocently. "Night." She practically skipped out of the house and down the street into her own.

Let's see, was she all packed? This was going to be a rather interesting surprise. And to think the whole group had kept it from Andrew for nearly two months!


	24. GG Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Andrew woke up to the sound of his mom hissing and headed for the first floor as quickly as he could, jumping over the banister instead of taking the stairs.

"What's wrong?"

Renesmee was on the phone. Jacob Black, Andrew's dad, had the other handset. He was trembling. Something that set Andrew's teeth on edge. His dad rarely lost control ever since Renesmee had been born nearly 25 years ago.

"Well then it's going to have to be in France. And they'll have to meet some of our terms."

Andrew strained to hear. He could make out the sound of Alice Cullen's voice but not the words.

"All right, can you all come tonight? All right, we'll be up. See you at eleven."

"What's going on?" Andrew asked. "Who's 'they'? Aw crap, 'they' is _them_ isn't it…"

Jacob nodded slowly, he was trying to stop shaking. Renesmee saw it was going to take a while and started to explain.

"Apparently the Volturi have eyes and ears here. They've been watching you with some of their human recruits. They have decided that they're going to stop simply observing us from afar. They wanted to meet in Spain as 'neutral ground' to watch you a little more closely and, um, make their decision."

"Their decision," Andrew repeated. His mind flashed back to the letter he had read a few weeks ago.

_The hybrid in question is most definitely the only of its kind and thus presents a danger to our entire world because it did not perish in early existence as was expected._

"They're going to decide whether or not I can live."

That did it, Jacob ran out the back door. His family heard a ripping sort of noise and then the sound of heavy wolf paws stamping at the ground.

"Jake, love, calm down," Renesmee called, heading outdoors after him. After a few minutes Renesmee ran through the house, up the stairs and back down and out again.

"Mom?"

"One minute."

43 seconds later Jacob and Renesmee walked back into the house, Jacob calm and human again.

"Sorry about that," Jacob apologized to them.

"No problem," Andrew shrugged. "I'm kind of freaked out too. But what can we do?"

"That's why everyone is coming tonight," Renesmee said. "To make decisions."

"At eleven?" Andrew frowned. He thought that Clara should probably be included in this but she couldn't miss that much sleep… humans needed more… Maybe he could suggest they come earlier?

The phone rang again. Renesmee picked it up. "Hello?" She handed it to Andrew. "It's Aunt Alice for you."

Andrew took the phone. "Alice?"

"Andrew, what was it you were thinking about just now? I've been able to see you more clearly ever since you imprinted but still not very well. What was it you just thought about doing?"

"Um, asking you guys to come earlier actually. I don't think that Clara should be left out of this but humans need sleep."

"So do partial humans," Alice reminded him. "We'll be over around 9, then."

"OK."

Alice said goodbye and Andrew relayed what just happened, somewhat needlessly because they had heard the whole thing.

"Go tell Clara," Jacob said. "I'm sure you're dying to see her anyway."


	25. GG Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Can you come?" Andrew asked after telling Clara what had happened.

"Of course." Clara said

"We're meeting in the café Mom runs," Andrew suddenly remembered.

"That late?" Clara frowned. "Won't people notice?"

"No, there's a back room. Are you sure you can get your parent's to let you out of the house?"

Clara gave him a did-you-really-just-ask-that look. "I can come." She yawned suddenly.

"Tired?" Andrew asked, concerned. "You don't have to come."

"I'm coming. I just had a late night. No worries."

Sure enough, at 8:45 Clara emerged from the front door of her house. She waved at Andrew and he hurried across the street to meet her. He took her hand, "Shall we go?"

"Let's," Clara smiled. They walked at a quick-ish human pace to Renesmee's café, the Sweet Bite. They went in through the side door and met the family in the back room.

"Hey, everyone," Andrew said. He looked around at his family. They all _appeared_ to be relaxed but Andrew could tell that it was due to Jasper. "So…"

"So we need to talk about the Volturi," Carlisle began. "They want to observe Andrew and his interactions with humans."

"But they already have someone here," Rosalie said. "Let's move onto what this is really about."

"Yeah, that they want to pick us off bit by bit," Emmett said.

"Anyway," Edward interrupted. "It's already been decided that they'll meet in France. We don't want the guard coming out west again."

"Why France?" Andrew asked. It was suddenly very quiet.

"Again?" Clara asked suddenly.

"That's right, Setting Sun hasn't come out yet," Renesmee said. "Mom, will you summarize the story for Clara?" While Bella did that the discussion turned to what they were going to do.

"So obviously he has to go," Carlisle said grimly.

"But you know that he might be in danger if we don't go," Esme said, upset.

"He _will_ be in danger," Rosalie stated. "Even if he proves to them that he isn't a liability."

"They'll use Clara, too." Emmett said casually.

Andrew automatically tightened his grip on Clara's hand, which suddenly made her aware of the world outside of her conversation with Bella again. "No."

"They will," Edward said. "You know it."

"Edward, don't frighten them," Bella murmured.

"It won't," Clara said. "We need to know every possibility."

"To be honest there's not many," Alice said suddenly. She and Jasper had been whispering nearly silently and very quickly with Jasper for the past few minutes.

"Very few actually," Jasper said in his Southern twang. "Either they're going to be confronted and challenged or somehow left alone."

It suddenly went very quiet.

"Breathe," Andrew reminded Clara. Her face had suddenly gone pale. "Clara?"

Clara shook her head suddenly, as if shaking off a bad memory. Actually she was trying to rid herself of the terrifying visions that had suddenly flooded her mind. If the Volturi decided that Andrew was too much of a liability… if he never came home… maybe this trip wasn't a good idea.

"The trip is going to happen," Edward said to Clara. "But at least this way we're prepared."

Jasper spoke again. "Perhaps if we knew if Andrew was venomous?"

Clara looked at Andrew. "You don't know?"

"Nope. We always thought that I always was more wolf than vampire so somehow we never figured out if I have any trace of venom. Anyway, venom is a death sentence to werewolves so we assumed it wasn't possible."

"I could run some tests," Carlisle said quietly. "Finding venom shouldn't be hard."

Jacob and Renesmee looked at each other. They hadn't allowed Carlisle to do that kind of thing in the past, but Andrew _had_ just turned eighteen.

Andrew considered that. "It won't be hard?"

"It shouldn't be."

Andrew nodded slowly. "All right, then."

"Hey, hate to bring it up again, but what if the Volturi grabs Clara?" Emmett asked. "Or one of, ow!" Rosalie had elbowed him, hard.

"What?" Andrew asked.

"Nothing," Renesmee said, giving Emmett a look that could kill. "But they won't unless they want all of us to cross the Atlantic."

"Right." Bella said briskly. "Well it's getting late and there's not much more we can do. Bedtime for the humans and hybrids, I think." She was watching Clara struggle to swallow a yawn.

Andrew noticed this too. "C'mon, Clara." He helped her up and she swayed slightly. "Do you sleep at all?"

"Of course I do," Clara said. "I was just busy last night."

"Until when?"

"Um, 3 or 4…"

"You're going to bed," Andrew decided. "Come on."

"I'll drive you two," Renesmee offered. Within minutes Clara was walking back through her front door and Andrew and Renesmee were listening to make sure she wasn't in trouble. Apparently Clara's gift was as powerful as ever because her mom, who happened to be awake, gave her no trouble and they heard Clara's feet trudge up the stairs.

"Let's go, Andrew," Renesmee. "You have an important day tomorrow."

"What do you mean? Tomorrow's just graduation practice. Wait, is this the thing you guys were hiding?"

But Renesmee Black refused to say another word.


	26. GG Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"I hate Mondays," Kendra said when they were all in the car, driving to school.

"Me too," Alyssa agreed. Everyone else echoed that opinion. Clara yawned hugely. "Why are you so tired today, Clara?"

"I was up late all weekend. Planning stuff, you know."

"Ah," Alyssa nodded. "I know how that is. I've been totally into planning _stuff_ lately."

"Oh yeah," Emmi said happily. "So have I. How 'bout you, Kendra? Christian?"

"Lotsa research, not much planning," Kendra said vaguely.

"I'm just going with it," Christian said.

"Going with what?" Andrew asked. Everyone started laughing as they pulled up into school. Before Andrew could ask again everyone was out of the car and heading to their 1st period.

"We get out of half of our classes today," Clara said. "For grad practice you know."

"Going with what?" Andrew asked again, refusing to be deterred.

"Nothing, nothing." The bell rang. "See you soon!" Clara dashed off to class.

How the heck did she do that?

Three classes later, all the seniors gathered excitedly on the Thomas Valley football field to practice their freedom ceremony night.

Andrew listened closely to the crowds for his friends.

"_Can't wait to go to Yale…"_

"_Beach time, dude!"_

"_Freedom!"_

"_SQUIRREL!" "No, get back here!" "Crap, they had chocolate."_

There they were. Andrew headed that way.

"So-is-everyone-all-ready?" Alyssa asked at high speed.

"Wait-there-he-is." Kendra stopped bouncing up and down long enough to say.

"He can't hear us."Emmi said in her 'no duh' voice.

"Yeah, he probably can actually." Clara giggled.

"Yeah…" Christian said distractedly.

Andrew finally reached them. "Hey guys, what's happening?"

A teacher with a megaphone suddenly started talking. "All A's lineup with Mr. Forrest! All B's with Mrs. Leanza…"

"Bye Drew-de-drew," Kendra and Alyssa sing-songed. Andrew scowled but walked towards the Spanish teacher organizing the B's.

The practice dragged on for a long time. But that was probably because there was some huge secret all his friends were hiding from him. Finally, though, they were in Kendra's car driving to her house for a hang out thing they had been planning.

Andrew and Christian headed straight for the kitchen.

"Trust them to find the pizza boxes first," Kendra said sarcastically. "I sometimes swear they're part animal."

Which was a fact that would never be confirmed on Andrew's part.

Soon all the pizza was gone. Except for one slice.

All the girls looked at each other briefly and then settled back to watch the show.

"Wrestle you for it," Andrew said.

"You're on."

"Five on Christian," Emmi whispered to Clara.

"You're on."

"This should last, what, five minutes tops?" Kendra commented to Alyssa.

"It's for food. I'll give it three minutes due to motive."

The boys heard these comments but didn't really register them. They were getting ready to take each other down. Or, rather, Christian was getting ready to take Andrew down. Andrew was deciding whether to let Christian win or not. He tried to keep their matches about fifty-fifty since he had to hide his inhuman strength. But it _was_ the last piece of pizza…

Wham! Christian had nearly knocked Andrew over!

_Whoa, guess he just caught me off guard…_ Andrew shook it off and, unthinkingly, went at it with all his strength.

But, somehow, _Christian didn't go down_.

Actually, Christian was close to taking Andrew down.

The girls couldn't believe how long this was taking. It had been nearly twenty minutes.

"How is this possible?" Clara muttered. She could tell that Andrew was using his inhuman advantage and that Christian was actually a match for him. But Christian was human! How was that possible?

Out of the corner of her eye, Clara saw Alyssa and Kendra were exchanging looks, almost looking like they were communicating telepathically. They seemed to be arguing.

_What are we missing here?_ Clara wondered. _Christian's suddenly super strong. He's been distracted for the past two months or so, too… And now the 'twins' are arguing, something that _never_ happens, what's changed here?_

"Hey, Clara," Emmi nudged her, bringing Clara back to the here-and-now. "I think we should break up the fight and just tell Andrew the news. This is way too much trouble for one piece of pizza."

"Good idea. Hey, Alyssa, Kennie, it's time."

"How're we going to pull them out of this?" Alyssa asked.

"Throw something at them?" Kendra suggested.

Emmi shook her head and then shouted, "I'm eating the pizza!"

"WHAT?" Both boys froze.

"Christian, it's time," Clara said.

"Oh. But we still don't know who gets the pizza."

"Then we can flip a coin later, c'mon."

"Are you guys finally going to tell me what you guys have been keeping from me?" Andrew asked.

"Yep," Kendra and Alyssa said. They followed Emmi into the kitchen.

"This," Emmi said, holding up a piece of paper, "will explain everything." She tossed it to Andrew.

Andrew glanced at it. "A plane ticket?" He skimmed. "You guys are giving me a round trip plane ticket to Charles de Gaulle airport? For… three months?"

"We're giving you _your_ plane ticket," Clara corrected him. "Charles de Gaulle airport is fourteen-ish miles from Paris."

It suddenly clicked. "No way."

"Yes way, dude," Christian laughed. Then he started cracking up and pointed at the girls.

All the girls were bouncing up and down singing, "WE'RE GOING TO FRANCE! WE'RE GOING TO FRANCE!"


	27. GG Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next day was graduation. The best part was the dinner afterwards with a huge mess of people. Obviously the Crazies were there along with Ritchie, Iliana, Carmelita, Kayla, Angelo, and Karlee just to name a few. Everyone was telling Iliana how great her valedictorian speech had been. She really was really smart.

Andrew thought a little about the previous night. He had told his parents about the weirdness with Christian actually being able to take him on and almost win. His dad had asked Seth Clearwater, his beta, to hang out by Christian's house and see if anything was up. There wasn't much to report except some muttering in Christian's room about astronomy stuff. But since when was Christian into astronomy?

"So are you all ready to go?" Clara asked Andrew.

"Yeah, Mom already had most of my stuff packed. Basically she and Alice are making me take my whole closet."

Clara laughed, "When you're going to the city of shopping?"

"Urg, shopping," Andrew half groaned. "There's got to be more to do than that."

"There is," Clara giggled. "I just had to see your reaction to the S-word. Anyway, either do some research and find somewhere you want to go or be like Christian and just go with it."

"I'll go with the second. Though shopping'd be better than getting stabbed with needles for a few more hours on end."

"How'd the testing go anyway?" Clara lowered her voice.

"I'm venomous," Andrew whispered. "But not as much as a nor—"

"Hey, Andrew," one of the guys asked, "Are you going to finish that chicken?"

Thirteen hours later they were all on the airplane, ten minutes into an over eleven hour flight.

Andrew and Christian were sitting and talking about nothing in particular. Clara and Emmi were quietly discussing how weird Alyssa and Kendra, who were listening to their iPods, had been acting.

"Usually they never fight," Clara was saying. "Have they told you anything?"

"I try to stay out of it," Emmi shrugged. "But somehow I got the idea that Kendra wants to tell someone something they both know but Alyssa is trying to get her not to."

"Do you have any idea what it is?"

"Not a clue. There's probably something in that shed they use as an 'evil lair' though. Either way, they're good enough friends to work it out. Maybe this trip will be what they need."

"I hope so," Clara murmured as a thought occurred to her. What if they were debating whether to tell Andrew they knew something was different about him? That'd explain the cake scene in the garage.

On the other side of the aisle, Christian kept looking around at the other passengers almost nervously.

"What's the matter?" Andrew asked. "Looking for someone?"

"Ye—uh, no, why? Why would I be looking for someone I know in a plane full of strangers?"

"Just asking," Andrew held up his hands in surrender. "So when'd you get so strong, Christian? A few months ago that match would have been over in a flash."

"Plenty can happen in a few months… or days," Christian said, almost to himself, as he looked around at the people again.

Andrew knew that well enough. But Christian couldn't be talking about the kind of changes he was thinking of.

A few hours later Andrew was startled awake by the sound of ripping paper. He turned around and saw Alyssa and Kendra sitting stiffly side by side and ripping up a piece of notebook paper beyond repair.

"Um, what are you two doing?"

"What's it look like?" Kendra asked.

"We're destroying a piece of paper just for the heck of it," Alyssa said, mildly sarcastically.

"What was on the paper?"

Kendra and Alyssa locked eyes and Andrew could feel the tension and discord between them. Alyssa's face was dark, like she was warning her 'twin' of something.

"Nothing you need to know," Kendra finally said, apparently surrendering.

"Hey, guys," Clara was suddenly sitting next to the girls. (The flight was half empty so the seat hopping was tolerated by the flight attendants who couldn't care less about anything other than their gossip sessions.) "Wanna play some BS? Emmi decided she'd rather sleep than play cards."

"Sure," the other girls said. They quickly set about dealing and readying their poker faces lest they be caught lying.

Andrew decided to go with Emmi's plan and sleep. Christian was already out. The dude looked as if he hadn't slept in days.


	28. GG Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"_Accueillir en France !"_ Emmi read off the sign in the airport. "Welcome to France. How cordial."

"I guess it's a good thing one of us took French for the past four years," Alyssa remarked.

"At least we know enough to get out of a tight spot," Kendra shrugged. Clara sensed a possible fight coming up and broke in.

"Who has the map to our hotel? We'll need to get a cab."

"First we need to exchange our money for Euros," Emmi corrected.

"_M'excuser,_" a male voice with a French accent said, "I could not help but hear that you needed to find the exchange counter?" Everyone turned to see the newcomer.

He was tall, had sweeping dirty blonde hair and broad shoulders. He smiled to reveal amazingly perfect teeth to match his handsome face. "_Peux-je vous montrer la façon ?_"

Everyone turned to Emmi. Her mouth was slightly open. Kendra poked her in the back.

"Oh, um oui_, cela serait grand._"

"_Merveilleux, cette façon,_" the guy said. "Come this way," He seemed to be looking right at Christian and then he turned and started walking, Emmi followed him and the group followed Emmi.

"What's going on?" Alyssa whispered to Clara.

"No idea," Clara whispered back. "But I trust Em, so…"

Emmi and the guy were talking smoothly in French. Andrew looked around and saw Christian glaring at the guy. "Christian? What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Christian said. But his hands were clenched into white-knuckle tight fists and he didn't stop glaring at the guy.

They stood in a line for a bit before Emmi explained in English what was happening. Then she continued talking to the guy, Adam Sterling, in French. It took a bit longer to get Euros for their dollars. (Adam made sure they weren't cheated out of their money.) Then Kendra took out a map and figured out where their hotel was. They got two cabs and gave them directions. Adam came with them, still engrossed in conversation with Emmi. Adam, Emmi and Alyssa went in one cab. Andrew, Clara, Christian and Kendra went in the other.

Christian was still tense but it wasn't as bad as before.

"Christian?" Clara asked, "what's the matter?"

"It's nothing," Christian insisted.

Kendra had her phone out and apparently wasn't listening to the conversation. Andrew managed to see she was texting Alyssa, though… and that they were arguing again. What the heck was up with that.

The cabbie suddenly turned on the air conditioning and the cab's scents hit Andrew full blast.

The leather seats.

Clara and her amazing beach aroma.

Kendra's scent: black Peruvian roses with a faint impression of (of course) dark chocolate. Andrew almost rolled his eyes at how predictable that was.

And… something… moldy. Was there old food in here? Not wishing to breathe in more, but curious about the smell, Andrew inhaled slightly more deeply. Ugh. It smelled like mold was growing on a dog's fur. But why would that smell be in _here_?

"Pardon me, we are here," The cabbie said. The conversation Andrew had missed stopped, the group paid the driver and rejoined the others.

"Isn't this city beautiful?" Emmi gushed. "I'm so excited to be here!"

"Adam is staying in this hotel, too," Alyssa offered. "His home is being sprayed for insects and he rented a room here for the meantime."

"Oh really?" Christian suddenly said. Everyone but Adam seemed taken aback by how ticked off he looked.

"_Oui, c'est vrai_," Adam shrugged ruefully. "But perhaps it worked out for the best, no? Now I can show you the sights of my city if you would allow me to, instead of hiring a tour guide who would surely only show you only iconic places."

"No," Christian snarled under his breath.

"Christian," Emmi said, shocked. "Don't listen to him, Adam, something is wrong with him."

"Oh I do not know about that," Adam said. "But I am sure we will be friends eventually."

"Don't hold your breath," Christian muttered, but this time only Andrew heard it. Everyone else had turned their attention to unloading their bags and heading to the lobby to check in.

Andrew held back, Clara stayed with him.

"Do you know what's wrong with him?" Clara asked, worried.

"No clue. But I'm going to find out. How could he hate a total stranger when he's usually so relaxed?"

"He's been jumpy for a while now," Clara said. "And did you notice how he wasn't looking around like he has been lately? Remember? It was almost like he'd been looking for someone."

"And Adam is that someone? Ugh that sounds so _wrong_."

Clara laughed without humor. "Well it's like you said, how could calm Christian so vehemently hate a _stranger_?"

Andrew glanced ahead to the group. _Was_ Adam a stranger?


	29. GG Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"The date today, ladies, is May 7, if you will turn to the appropriate page in your planners—" Alyssa said in her plane attendant/tour guide voice. "But seriously does anyone know the plan for the day?"

"First going to go find a café to eat at," Emmi said. "Well the boys are eating beforehand, too, so they don't look like pigs later. Adam said— what?" She broke off at the look that the other three girls exchanged.

"It's nothing," Clara smiled. "Go on."

"No, tell me," Emmi insisted. "What was _that_ for?"

Kendra piped up. "We just think its cute how you and Adam are adorable together."

Emmi blushed. And Alyssa giggled. "What is it you two talk about? The rest of us only know what I like to call 'emergency French' after all."

"Just stuff," Emmi smiled. "The city. Culture. Art. AP Art History is coming in handy. Too bad you dropped out, 'Lyssa."

"Yeah, too bad I sacrificed hours of homework a night for a boy I never have and may never meet," Alyssa rolled her eyes. Kendra smacked her. "OW!"

"All of us are going to meet someone amazing," Kendra stated. Her eyes slid to Clara. "Some of us already have."

Clara didn't miss a beat. "What are you not telling us, Kendra?"

"You know what I mean." Kendra tilted her head. "I think that you found your One. Am I right?"

Clara smiled. "I think so. Just between us, though." Thought so? No, she knew so. And it was getting stronger every day. But Andrew didn't need to know about this conversation.

Emmi's phone buzzed. "Oh, time to go!"

Hours later the group stopped to rest. Everyone was enjoying themselves. Except for Christian, of course.

Emmi and Adam were talking in French again. Every now and then Emmi would tell the group a bit of information about Adam. Christian would glare at the guy but keep his mouth shut. Clara would ask a question occasionally. Alyssa and Kendra were studying a map, looking for the best places to get sugar. Andrew snatched the map out of their hands.

"Emmi, guard this from them. They don't need to get kicked out of France."

Clara rolled her eyes. "They'd get kicked out of all of Europe."

"We'd finally have a safe haven," Christian said, finally breaking out of his anger for a second. "A place to go when they finally went over the edge."

Alyssa and Kendra looked at each other.

"You know," Alyssa began.

"They have a point," Kendra finished.

"Hey, guys there's an art museum not far from here, let's go!" Emmi broke in, oblivious to what had happened.

"What museam?" Clara asked.

"The Musée d'Orsay," Adam said. "It is quite worth the few minute's walk."

"Is there somewhere to eat afterwards?" Andrew asked. All the girls rolled their eyes at once. "What?"

"Yes," Adam smiled. "Bouillon Racine. It is very good."

"Let's go," Emmi said.

The Musée d'Orsay was one of the most elegant places Alyssa and Kendra had ever seen, including the ballroom they had once danced in at a villa several years before when they won a writing competition and were sponsored to go to an authors' dinner in Sicily. No, this museums uniqueness topped even that experience.

It almost made them forget about their argument.

The Twins managed to detach themselves from the group. Actually it was really easy. Adam and Emmi were immersed in artwork, Clara and Andrew were walking around slowly, and whispering to each other. Christian was hanging way over by some French girls who were intrigued by the piece _The Death of Narcissus. _He appeared relaxed but the girls observed that every time his eyes flickered over to Emmi his hands would curl into tight, white knuckled fists.

They were walking along in the new photography exhibit, making sure they were out of hearing range.

"So when are we going to say something?" Kendra asked. "You say all the time that—"

"That every secret is revealed in time, I know," Alyssa rolled her eyes. "And it's a bit much to hope that their secret will be revealed before ours."

"Do you have the paper? Maybe we'll see something we missed before," Kendra suggested half heartedly. Alyssa pulled out said paper from her mini leather backpack/purse. She hated looking like a tourist with a fanny pack or real backpack and this bag was cute.

Name-species-alias

Andrew-?-?

Alice-V-Alicia

Bella-V-Bailey

Edward-V-Evan

Renesmee-?-?

Jacob-WW-Jonathan

Clara-H?-?

Christian-?-?

Adam-?-?

"Well I don't see anything new," Alyssa said slowly. "But then, the last book hasn't come out yet. Maybe someone is connected to one of those characters?"

"Maybe," Kendra said, reading the paper yet again. "And it's also possible that some of them don't connect to the books exactly. Like maybe Christian."

"There is so something off with him, though," Alyssa frowned.

"There is with Andrew, too, we established that."

"I don't have a clue about Adam. But there's got to be a reason that Christian hated him so much on sight."

"And it has to be supernatural?"

"No but that's most likely at this moment," Alyssa sighed. "I do want to just ask, but who's to say that Andrew isn't as skilled of a liar as Evan?"

"You mean Edward."

"You know what I mean."

"It wasn't too smart how the authors made their initials the same," Kendra noted. "I mean if it was a cover up and they were really vampires, couldn't they have picked better aliases?"

"There's something a lot bigger going on here…" Alyssa said. "We just can't figure out what…"

"Not without asking. If the Cullens really are the Clemens family then they will have their story too straight to be messed up by normal humans."

"Yeah, cuz we're incredibly normal."

"You have a point. But we'll need to ask if we want to know," Kendra said for the thousandth time.

"Yeah… I know. Fine. But we need to find the right time." Alyssa's eyes flickered around the exhibit as she thought. "Maybe asking Clara would be easiest? Since we're mostly sure that she's human and that Andrew can't read minds?"

"That'd be best, I believe. And Drewy definitely can't read minds. If he did he'd kill us for the 8 or so nicknames we have for him," Kendra smiled angelically.

"Definitely," Alyssa laughed. "C'mon let's go find everyone else."

"Hold on, I'm leading. You get lost in the smallest of stores, remember Isis Bridal? We'll be in London before you realize you're lost."

"Fine, Twin, lead the way." Alyssa didn't even try to deny it. Kendra was definitely right in this situation.

It didn't take too long for Kendra to navigate the halls of the museum. Soon they had found the group again, almost right where they had left them. Except now Andrew was walking towards Christian and Clara was heading for Emmi and Adam.

The girls halted simultaneously, watching. Andrew asked Christian something and Christian shrugged and gestured at one of the French girls who were now debating avidly in French. Clara said something to Adam and held out a tourist book. He pointed at something in it and turned a few pages. Then Clara and Andrew met 'subtly' back towards the middle of the room. Andrew's face was all scrunched up like he had smelled something awful. Clara handed him the book and his face scrunched up even more.

The Twins weren't exactly lip-readers. But they managed to catch one word as Andrew said something very, very quietly to Clara. "Same."

The girls retreated.

Silently Alyssa pulled out their paper and made an alteration on it.

Christian-?_same-_?

Adam-?_same-_?

**Hey anyone who's reading! I'd really love it if y'all would tell me what you think or even make a suggestion of a sight they should see or something that happens. I've got the outline of it in my head, but I'm always ready for ideas!**

**3 assyla**


	30. GG Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Oh my," Clara gasped quietly as the group emerged from the elevator in the southern pillar at the top of the Eiffel tower. "This is amazing."

The lights of Paris were beautiful at night. It was impossible to describe. Clara found herself utterly speechless as the group was escorted to their table, right next to a window overlooking the city.

"Je ne peux pas croire que vous nous avez obtenus les réservations, Adam. Ceci est incroyable," Emmi said, sitting down lightly on the seat Adam held out for her. (**I cannot believe you got us reservations, Adam. This is incredible.**)

"Well such things are easy for me," Adam smiled sweetly. "Things always seem to work out for my kind."

"Your kind?" Emmi frowned, puzzled.

Alyssa and Kendra exchanged a look. Clara and Andrew tensed a little. Christian's scowl grew more pronounced.

"My family," Adam said a bit hastily, detecting the change in atmosphere. "We are very unusual that way."

"I'll bet," Christian muttered.

Andrew glanced at him; trying to figure out what the heck these two were for the thousandth time and how they ended up in the same place. Well obviously that couldn't be a coincidence. Maybe it was some sort of instinct.

Clara reached under the table and took Andrew's hand. "Not now," she whispered, barely more than a breath. Nevertheless, Andrew, Christian and Adam all heard her. Christian looked shocked and alarmed. The set of Adam's mouth changed ever so slightly for a moment but then he resumed talking to Emmi normally. Andrew nodded in consent. Why bother tonight? He needed Christian alone to get answers.

Clara decided to set things straight. It had been a while since she had used her power. She focused briefly and the "Soul World" was opened up to her.

Full of color and emotions, the Soul World was a place that had for some reason chosen Clara to be a manipulator. She could touch people's souls and feel emotions and leave impressions, almost suggestions, about what to think or how to act. Sometimes Clara wondered how it would change if she became a vampire, but never entertained the idea for long, preferring to think about here and now.

And here and now Clara was not surprised to see that Adam and Christian's 'soul colors' were highly unusual and remarkably similar. Adam's was a shining white, bright like a star. Christian's was the same hue, only not as vivid. She reached out to their souls and left the impression that they wanted to be civil and enjoy the night.

"Clara?"

Alyssa's touch drew Clara abruptly out of the Soul World.

"Clara, will you come with me for a second?" Alyssa looked upset for some reason. Looking around, Clara realized that Andrew and Emmi were extremely uncomfortable and Kendra looked ticked off. How long had she been unaware?

"Sure," Clara agreed. She and Alyssa managed to find their way to the restroom and Clara asked what was wrong, what she had missed.

"You spaced out for a while," Alyssa noted, trying to breathe normally. "What happened?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Clara noted dryly. "Yes I spaced, I have a lot on my mind. What did I miss?"

Alyssa bit her lip. "Have you noticed that Kendra and I have been… on rocky ground lately?"

"It's kind of obvious."

"Yeah… I thought that we had worked it out after talking... but just now she hinted at what we've been arguing about and it just kind of changed the whole atmosphere. I have no idea why, it just got to me and—"

"Hold up," Clara held up her hands to stop the torrent. "Have you checked the calendar lately?"

"What do you—oh…" Alyssa tried to count in her head. "That could be it…"

"But if you don't mind me asking," Clara said hesitantly, "what have you two been fighting about?"

Alyssa froze. "Um. Well it's a matter of timing a question. She's been trying to rush it and I want to wait until it's the right time."

"What's the question?"

"I can't tell you that," Alyssa's face was apologetic. "I'm sorry, I just can't."

Clara considered making Alyssa tell her, she could do it. It would be so easy…

_No_, Clara shook off the thoughts. _You're not going to go that route._ "OK. Are you all right to go back?"

"Yes," Alyssa sighed. "I think so. Thanks."

The two walked back out to find Kendra, Andrew and Christian all at the table. Emmi and Adam had disappeared.

There were drinks on the table now. Clara frowned at some of the glasses. "Wine?"

"Hey, 18 is the drinking age in France," Andrew said.

"It's true," Kendra grinned. "I checked."

"Of course you did," Clara teased lightly. "I think I'm going to stick with water, like Christian did."

"Me too," Alyssa added. She met Kendra's eyes and the onlookers swore that something passed between them. It was that weird, "twin" thing. It was like they could communicate telepathically with each other.

Just to ensure things, though, Alyssa spoke the message out loud. "I'm sorry."

"It's all good, twin," Kendra smiled. "And you _are_ having some of this wine."

"Don't bet on it."

The evening passed smoothly from there. Christian, Kendra and Alyssa exchanged the usual banter. They weren't excluding Andrew and Clara so much as realizing that they probably wanted the space. After all, it was Paris and they were _them_.

And they were right.

Andrew and Clara were having the night of their lives. And though they didn't know it, the bond between them was solidifying even more so than it was. Their Imprint. It was a unique Impring because of Andrew being the genetic oddity he was. Instead of the million-steel-cables-at-first-glance thing that the other pack members experienced, Andrew's Imprint took time to get that strong.

But there was no doubt that eventually it would get that strong. It wasn't there tonight, but it would be.

Shockingly, the night went picture perfectly. Adam and Emmi rejoined them and there wasn't a problem between Adam and Christian. The Twins didn't have another disagreement aside from the anti-evil twin's refusal to drink. And everyone was trying new, delicious things they hadn't ever thought they would see much less eat.

By the end of the night, Clara almost didn't think that anything could touch the group's perfect little world.

Almost.

_**Hey! I know you guys are out there! Tell me what you think! **___

_**3 assyla**_


	31. GG Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Everyone slept in the next day. They had been out way late, choosing to walk back to the hotel. Andrew didn't wake up until almost noon. And the only reason he woke up then was because Christian dumped a glass of water over his face and blew one of the Twin's ever-present whistles in his ear.

"WHAT!"

"Good, you're awake."

"No shit, Sherlock. Why did you do that?"

"Alyssa and Kendra told me to." He pulled out his phone and looked at it, "They said _'hurry up and get ready and then go down to the lobby and go to the front desk and ask for a message from the manager named Pierre_'."

"I'm going to kill them."

"Hold on there was something about that… '_We know you're probably going to kill us if you find us before you find Pierre so just do us all a favor and see Pierre first. Besides, the only way you'll find us is if you follow our chocolate-y scents all the way to the candy store we've taken Emmi to and you know that we are dangerous once we've had sugar and by the time Monkey reads this we'll have consumed a lot_'."

Andrew scowled. "Screw this, I'm going back to sleep."

"If you go back to sleep then I have to text them and somehow they got duct tape through customs."

Duct tape and sugar…

"I'm going."

Ten minutes later, Andrew walked down to the lobby, annoyed. He located Pierre and the man handed him a folded piece of paper.

_Congrats on listening well to our instructions, Pandrew! You will shortly be rewarded. Count to ten slowly and then turn to the east doors._

_These two are nuts_, Andrew thought. _I'm going back to bed. No wait… freaking duct tape and sugar. How did Emmi let them go to a candy store? Ugh. One… Two… Three…_

When he reached ten, Andrew turned to the east doors and looked for something unusual.

Something came up behind him and covered his eyes.

"Clara? I know it's you," Andrew laughed. Her scent was too distinct. He twisted lightly out of her blinding-hold and caught her in a hug. "You were in on this!"

"Of course!" Clara's eyes were dancing. "It was their idea but how could I say no? A whole afternoon to ourselves?"

Andrew was confused briefly. It showed on his face and Clara commented on it.

"They didn't tell you?"

"Let's walk and talk."

As they walked down the streets of Paris, Andrew retold the story of his day thus far. By the time he finished, Clara was shaking with laughter.

"I didn't think they'd actually do it!"

"What wouldn't those two do?" Something occurred to him. "Follow our chocolate-y scents…"

"They couldn't know," Clara said. "But they eat so much of the stuff it's no wonder they're sure they smell of it."

"Why say it was their scents though?"

"No idea… do you think they saw the thing in the meusem?"

"They were gone about then. Maybe." Just then Andrew's stomach rumbled audibly.

"C'mon, you. Let's find some food before we have to find a blood bank or something."

"So not funny."

"It was and you know it."

They ended up at a small café and sat at a table outside and pointed at something random on the menu.

"You have any idea what we just ordered?" Andrew asked when the waiter left.

"Not a clue," Clara laughed.

Turned out they had ordered Gratinéed onion soup. They talked about lighter things over the food and then left to go walk around the city. It didn't really matter if they got lost because of Andrew's sense of smell. He'd be able to sniff out the way back to the hotel.

"Let's go sit in the shade," Clara suggested when they found a park. "We can people watch."

As soon as they entered the park, Andrew stiffened and halted. "Something's wrong." He pulled Clara back the way they came by the hand.

"What?"

"Vampires."

"Vampires aren't evil," Clara said, looking around discreetly. "Not all of them. It could be another curious one, like Zavan."

"Out in the daylight? Trust me. We need to go." Andrew got the feeling they were being followed. "Where are the cabs when you need them?"

"Calm down," Clara didn't look very calm herself. "Aren't we OK if we stay in the light?"

"Maybe. I doubt it." Andrew looked around for an escape by wheels and found none. Like someone had purposely orchestrated this. Someone with a lot of power. "We need to merge with the people here." It was desperate but it was an option. "C'mon."

The two walked quickly to the sidewalks and tried to blend with the people. Not easy to do since they were so clearly Americans.

Andrew caught that super sweet vampire scent coming from behind on a breeze. He looked around and saw three of them. One behind, one right in their path and one from their right. On their left was an alleyway that was clear. No one but _them_ could do this so perfectly, so systematically.

Making sure once again that there wasn't anyone in it, Andrew pushed Clara to the left, into the alley. He kept hold of her hand but stayed in front of her, shielding her from the Volturi members flocking to them.

"Andrew," a small, blonde one said. "How nice to finally meet you." She smiled sweetly and her red eyes flashed. "I'm Jane. I'm sure you know about me."

_How is she not sparkling?_ Andrew wondered briefly. Then saw the long sleeves, gloves and skinny jeans. She also had a head scarf and a pair of huge sunglasses in hand. The other vampires with her were dressed similarly. "Yes." He fought to keep the disgust from his voice.

"Then you know why I'm here."

"Apparently to see if I'm a threat of exposure," Andrew said tightly. "I'm not."

"So we've seen. You aren't, as of yet. But… the company you keep is different." Jane looked amused. "Who're you hiding, young hybrid? It's a human. Do tell."

Andrew gritted his teeth, debating.

"You know about my powers, hybrid."

Damn. "My girlfriend. Clara. She's not a threat."

"Mmhmm." Jane clearly didn't buy that. "What about the werewolves?"

"My pack?"

"The true werewolves, hybrid. The ones staying at that hotel with you. You must know by now. They stink worse than your kind of shape shifters."

Clara's hand tightened in Andrew's involuntarily. Jane had just given them the answer that Andrew was sure he was going to have to beat out of Christian.

"Oh, the ones with the full moon problem," Andrew said like this was no news to him. "They're just fine. Nice of you to ask."

Jane growled, the sound resounding low in her throat. She couldn't use her powers out here with so many witnesses and avoid detection. And Aro had specifically said not to harm these two. Ah, Aro… she loved the man but he had too many weak spots for 'special treasures' like these two. At least that same desire made him keep her close… "They are threats to us. They can kill vampires. Our species are at constant war. There are few left but they are hard to find. Having two in the same place is a great fortune with them so… trusting towards you."

"Huh?" Andrew pretended not to catch on.

Clara could sense where this was going. It wasn't good. She took a deep, silent breath and delved into the Soul World.

Wow. Jane's soul was disgusting. It made her think of knives and blood and death, the coloring was a violent red and a withered black. It made her nauseous to think of merging with it for any reason but she had to. She plunged in before she could actually get sick.

_Walk away, you've established he's no threat. That's enough for today. Your master is waiting. You've done well. Walk away._

When Clara reopened her eyes, the vampires were gone and Andrew was grasping her shoulders and trying to get her to talk.

"Clara? C'mon, talk to me," his voice was panicked. "Clara!"

"I'm fine," Clara managed to get out. "Her soul is disgusting."

"_She_ has a soul?"

"All vampires do. I've seen them. But I've never tried to make them do anything." Clara shuddered. "How much did she say after the trusting you part?"

"Nothing. You got in quick," Andrew studied Clara. "We need to get you something to eat. Or drink. Can you walk?"

"I think so." Clara managed a few staggering steps, holding tightly to Andrew.

Andrew shook his head and then picked her up.

"Andrew!"

"Shush."

"But—"

"Shush."

Clara gave in but sulked all the way to the street café Andrew found. He ordered something in French and Clara raised her eyebrows. "You don't speak French."

"I've picked some up from our Crazy friends."

"Namely Emmi and Adam."

"Yeah."

It was quiet for a few beats.

"What are we going to do?" Clara asked. "Who would know about werewolves we can trust? True werewolves," she added seeing the look on Andrew's face.

"That's easy. My grandpa."


	32. GG Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Andrew pounded on his room's door, locked out. He had switched keys with Clara by accident and then all the girls had gone off shopping.

Andrew couldn't figure out where the heck Christian was. During his call to Edward they had figured out that the full moon was the day after tomorrow and he wanted to have this conversation before then. He needed to. The Volturi could move any time now. No vampire would object to a werewolf hunt. Edward had also given them information on the Volturi about their powers and influence. This was day five since he had last seen Christian. Emmi said that they had something to do and apparently trusted Adam but she didn't know he was a—

"Andrew!" Kendra startled him.

"Wha—" Andrew whirled. "Crap I didn't even hear you coming."

"Locked out?" Kendra asked.

"Yeah."

Kendra rolled her eyes and reached into her purse, pulling out a key. "Here." She opened the door. It was a weird one that was off balance so it hung open when swung to the inside and stayed like that.

"How did you—"

"You don't need to know."

"But—"

"You don't need to know," Alyssa said, coming up on his other side.

Andrew didn't like this. "You two are supposed to be with the others."

"We need to talk to you," they said at the same time.

"Okay…"

Alyssa and Kendra looked at each other.

"You know how we're pretty crazy?" Alyssa asked rhetorically. "Well, we're also not stupid."

"We know what you are," Kendra said.

Not thinking, Andrew moved with vampire speed, feeling that strange high he had only felt once before come over him. And last time it had been marred by anger. He reached out, spun them around so they weren't facing him and wrapped an arm around each of them and covered their mouths with his hands. Pulling them into the room, Andrew kicked the door closed and steered them to one of the beds before releasing them.

"What do you know?" Andrew demanded.

"Besides that, you mean?" Alyssa said sarcastically.

"We know what type of being you are, your family's history, and that Christian and Adam aren't human either but they probably aren't what you are," Kendra said.

"How?"

Alyssa produced a copy of Setting Sun, the last of the Starlight series. "It comes out earlier in this hemisphere."

"So are you going to fill us in?" Kendra demanded. "Cuz if not, there isn't a reason for us to be here other than us telling you and obviously that's been done."

"Kendra!" Alyssa yelled at her for accidently giving Andrew the option.

Andrew shrugged. "Fine. You might as well know." Andrew proceeded to give them the whole story. It took nearly an hour but soon the two knew everything he and Clara did.

Kendra and Alyssa sat open-mouthed, staring in shocked belief.

"So now I need to find Christian before tomorrow," Andrew said when they didn't speak.

"Can't you follow his scent?" Kendra asked.

"Tried that. Lost it at the Seine River."

"Supposedly real werewolves don't like water," Alyssa said. "But…"

"Real vampires aren't supposed to sparkle either," Kendra finished.

"They're going to be somewhere secluded."

"And far."

"Unless they want to infect other people."

"Which we don't see Christian doing."

Andrew held up his hands to stop the torrent. "Enough word ping pong. I don't think that Christian would, but Adam might. But then why wouldn't they stay here?"

"The Volturi," the girls said at once.

_Oh, crap,_ Andrew thought. "They're going to know…"

"Well, no duh, Sherlock," Alyssa rolled her eyes.

"We kind of figured that _before_ coming to talk to you."

"And you came anyway."

"Duh," Kendra said. "We don't abandon our friends, Pandrew."

"Ever," Alyssa added. "So how're we going to find them?"

Andrew though for a second. "We need to call my family."

**Please, please review! Oh! Let's make this a game! Tell me if you have a friend that any of the characters reminds you of! You don't have to say your friend's name if you don't want to, just which character!**

**3 Assyla**


	33. GG Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Hello?"

"Aunt Rose, it's Andrew." Like she didn't already know that. "Something's changed and we need help. Is everyone there?"

"They can be in about two minutes. Hold on."

"Andrew?" Alice asked. "Who are the others on the line?"

"You're watching my phone calls?" Andrew was conference calling with his family and the twins.

"Maybe. Hey Kendra, hey Alyssa. Long time no talk!"

Alyssa and Kendra looked at Andrew. They hadn't expected this, and the last time they had talked to Alice, she'd been a cousin visiting Andrew at school. "Hey, Alice…" they said awkwardly.

Carlisle came on. "Andrew? All of us are on speaker here."

"Oh, OK," Andrew said, automatically relaxing. Carlisle always knew what to do. "So is everyone there?"

"Yes. What's going on?"

Andrew told everyone everything, and ended expecting a bashing about spilling the Secret.

It was quiet on the line for about three seconds. Then Emmett spoke up. "Well congrats on the find, humans! That ain't easy or safe!"

"Emmett!" Rose scolded.

Esme spoke. "Andrew, you realize what could happen now, right?"

Andrew paled. He hadn't thought those exact words yet.

The girls had. "We could die," Alyssa and Kendra said together.

"We don't care," Kendra said.

"We don't leave our friends when they're in trouble," Alyssa said fiercely.

Edward spoke. "You could do worse than die. You could lose your souls."

"No," Kendra corrected him. "We couldn't."

"You could be changed," Jasper said flatly. "Then you'll lose your soul. By turning into one of us."

"That's a load of bull," Bella interjected.

"It is," Alyssa said. "Remember Clara?"

It hit all the vampires just as she said it.

"Clara wouldn't have been able to compel Jane if Jane didn't have a soul," Alyssa said. "And from what I've heard, she would be one of the most likely to lose her soul."

"Clara said her soul was disgusting," Andrew remembered, catching up.

There was a truly shocked silence on the other end.

"Guys?" Andrew asked.

Clearly he didn't get that after between over a century and a few decades of uncertainty, the biggest question the Cullen vampires faced had shown its answer. The gravity of the situation was tangible. The whole universe had shifted.

"I TOLD YOU!" Bella suddenly shouted on the other end. Hollers of joy and sounds of kisses between soul mates filled the line. Andrew and the girls put their phones on mute.

"We're not going to get anything out of them for a while," Andrew said.

"You're so insensitive," Kendra rolled her eyes.

"Seriously. Do you not get how badly that haunted them?"

"Uh…"

Alyssa shook her head. "Anyway, maybe we need to go to the Seine and see if there's something you missed."

"I didn't miss anything!"

"Well your idea is on hold for a while," Kendra said, indicating the phones. "So are we going to sit here or what?"

"Yeah pretty much."

"Lame-o," the girls muttered together.

It was a long wait. Finally things in Oregon (the Cullens had moved a short while ago) cooled down a bit. Carlisle came back on.

"Hello?"

"Hey."

"Hello? Andrew?"

"You're on mute," Kendra reminded him. They all turned off that setting.

"Hey," Andrew said again. "So how are we going to find them? The Volturi hunt true werewolves. I can't let them get Christian at least."

"Preferably not Adam either," Alyssa said.

"He and Emmi have a thing," Kendra said.

"That isn't good." Jasper spoke up, "Werewolves are… impatient. And have a temper… and a knack for acting. When they're in wolf form they have no control that we know of."

"He's probably playing your friend to either get some or turn her to save his race," Emmett said bluntly.

The threesome in France looked at each other. "Ah, crap," they all said at once.

"What can we do?" Andrew asked.

"The girls, not much except stay inside," Jasper said, taking over. Strategy was his thing. "You'll have to go back to the Seine and search more. Or see if there's another track out of the city. Right now Edward is making some calls to find out more information about those types of werewolves. Go now, while it's still light. The girls can fill in Clara when she and Emmi get back."

"Got it," Andrew said.

Alyssa and Kendra didn't like to be told to stay inside, but agreed. The call ended.

Then Andrew realized something. His parents hadn't been in on the call. Surely not everyone forgot to call them…

He dialed their number. And got voice mail right away.

_Gee, thanks Mom and Dad,_ he thought. Out loud he said, "I guess you two should probably go back to your room."

"OK," they agreed too quickly.

"…you guys have chocolate there, don't you." It wasn't a question.

"That's not your problem at this time," Kendra said as they headed for the door.

"Laters," Alyssa smiled angelically.

"There're some horns holding up your halo, there," Andrew remarked. Trust them to use this situation as an excuse to get eat their stash of sugar.


	34. GG Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Andrew was at the Siene, facing south, across the water. He had a bag of fruit and his ears were on high alert. Yes, he looked like an idiot. Yes, he was getting weird looks because of it. No, he didn't care. Andrew crossed the river and then started walking west, not really thinking about why. Once he was free of humans, Andrew took the loudest bite of apple possible and chewed it obnoxiously.

Christian _hated_ the sound of crunching apple. _Hated it._ He always lost it at the sound.

"_Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!"_ The yell barely reached Andrew, but it told him which was to go. He set out at a slow run north-west. Every now and then he paused to check his direction via crunching.

The sun was on the horizon when Andrew found the place. It was a tiny stone house about the size of a classroom from TVHS. Dropping his bag, Andrew ran up to the door and broke it down. Voices shouted in surprise.

"You idiot!" Andrew tackled Christian to the ground and they started to roll on the dirt floor.

"What—are—you—doing here?" Christian grunted.

"Kicking your—"

"Enough!" The boys were thrown to the opposite sides of the room.

Adam glared at both of them in turn. His eyes glinted brightly, an animal-like yellow. "So it's true then," Adam said sharply. "You're the hybrid the Volturi wants either flipped or dead."

"Flipped?" Andrew shook his head. That was new. Later. "And you two are the Children of the Moon that they hunt constantly."

"We're at war," Adam growled. "How did you find us?"

"I know Christian," Andrew said flatly. Speaking of. He rounded on that one. "Why didn't you tell anyone about this, Christian?"

"Why do you think?" Christian yelled back. "Why didn't _you_ tell _me_?"

"I'm already on their hit list!"

"So are we!"

Adam interrupted them. "Let's just start at the beginning. The full moon is nearly here. It's dark now. We have tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night to get things straight between us and whoever else knows."

"But the full moon isn't until the night of the day after tomorrow."

"We need to be in the French Alps by then," Adam shrugged. "Keep the humans safe. Do you want the story of Adam and Christian, Children of the Moon or not?"

Andrew shut his mouth. Adam sat down on the floor. Andrew noticed that the floor was dirt. And the only furniture in here was a really old refrigerator.

"The Volturi have hunted us ever since our "war" began. It's all been one-sided. They hate us, we want to not be in danger of extinction, so we defend ourselves. By now there are only eight of us officially. We met in a rare gathering and decided we needed to find suitable humans and repopulate. Which, of course, meant biting humans.

"I was in America and I found Christian. He already had some qualities of us Children of the Moon. Large appetite, secret keeper, occasional mood swing, canine-like scent, strength and speed. It would make the transition easier, less noticeable. We stop aging about 5 years after actually changing so sometimes we stick around for a while.

"That kind of process can be difficult. Plus the others stuff. Abilities, avoiding leeches, and guiding them through the moons.

"Christian has been avoiding me, not wishing to accept the change. So I came here ahead of you and you know the rest."

"So you lied about everything ever since we came to France," Andrew said flatly.

Adam looked uncomfortable. "Not everything."

Andrew ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm down. "Being from France."

"I was born here in 25BC. Before it was France."

"Your name, then."

"Nope. It's the English translation of what I was born with."

"Your reasons for being here."

"No one asked."

"Your humanity."

"No one asked."

"Liking Emmi!"

Adam growled. "I _do_ care about Emmi and won't allow you to say otherwise."

Andrew had no way of proving a lie or the truth. So he dropped it.

"So what now?" Christian asked after a moment. "I'll freaking let you be my teacher but it looks like we kind of have bigger problems. Blood sucking problems."

"He's right," Andrew said. "The Volturi confronted me and Clara the other day. They were going to ask me to 'take care of you' but—" he stopped abruptly, not sure how much to disclose.

"But Clara stopped them," Adam finished. "I could tell she touched us with power at Le Jules Vernes. Mind control?"

"More like soul… influence." Very strong soul influence.

"So the leeches have souls… and apparently so do we, how nice," Adam mused. "But how many can she control?"

"The most she's tried is two unsuspecting adult humans."

"And they know you two are separate right now?"

"Most of France probably is talking about the annoying apple guy—oh _shit_!"

"Let's move," Adam said flatly.

They were out the door and half a mile away within the minute.


	35. GG Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The girls' hotel room was empty.

It reeked of vampires.

Andrew felt panic rise up in him. "No! We need to find them!"

"We need to find out who's missing first," Adam said coolly.

"THE GIRLS, YOU—"

_Andrew._

Andrew jerked his head around, looking for Clara. She was calling him. Didn't the wolves hear it?

Oh. That wasn't out loud. She was touching his soul. He tried to send an impression of wanting to know where she was.

_Your impressions aren't very good._ Andrew could sense Clara's amusement. _But I get it. Hmm I wonder why I can send you words. The Imprint, maybe? Later… Emmi and I are in the hotel basement, locked from the outside and we're doused in something foul-smelling. Can you get us out of here?_

How'd they get in there?

_By ourselves of course. I saw the vampires and we bolted_.

Emmi went along with that?

_I'll explain when you get here with some towels_.

Andrew relayed the important bits of this to Adam and Christian and those two set to smelling out the girls, which took all of ten minutes.

Andrew knocked on the door the Moon Wolves said was right. "Clara?"

"Andrew! Can you get us out of here, please?"

"Are you okay?" Andrew asked as he set to picking the lock. Aunt Rose had taught him about this a while back.

"I'm fine."

"What about Emmi?" Adam asked.

"Umm… she's technically fine."

Andrew groaned. "What happened?"

"She's not in… control of herself at the moment. I had to, you know."

"Well that stinks." Andrew's nose crinkled. "Literally." He opened the door and scooped up Clara as she fell forward.

"That's what I get for leaning against the door."

"What's going on?" Emmi asked suddenly, from the shadows. "What's that smell? Is that—"

Clara glanced in her direction and Emmi fell to happily humming show tunes.

"That's creepy," Christian said.

"What _happened_?" Andrew asked again.

"I saw the vampires, made contact with Emmi's soul and got us here but not before stopping by the kitchen to get whatever this gunk is. I tried to get a message to the Twins but I don't think they got out," Clara said quickly. "We have to find them!"

"On it," Adam said. "Christian, back to the room. We need the scent."

Fifteen minutes passed before they were on the streets. Andrew had his arm around Clara's shoulders protectively and Clara was keeping her 'suggestions' up with Emmi, who was quietly and happily following the couple and the bloodhounds.

Said bloodhounds were doing what dogs do best, smelling out their target.

"This is so weird," Christian said. "There's so much to smell when you try. The twins smell like… weird plant smells and chocolate. What is that?"

"Kendra is black Peruvian roses and dark chocolate. Alyssa is white roses and dark chocolate," Andrew answered automatically, sniffing the air himself.

"Figures. And then the leeches are super sweet but different sweets. Like the same amount of sweet but—"

"Focus," Adam interjected. Then he looked back at Clara and Emmi. "Is Emmi all right? This won't hurt her?"

"Not that I can tell," Clara replied. "Focus."

"I think they're that way," Andrew pointed with his free hand.

"You're right," Christian frowned. "How'd you know?"

"Half shape-shifter-werewolf, bro."

"His sense of smell isn't as acute as ours, but close," Adam said matter-of-factly. "Like a vampire's. Back to the point. This was too easy. It may be a trap, in which case Christian and I are dead."

"We need to hide Emmi somewhere," Clara said suddenly. "I can probably make her sleep. Can you two guard her while we go on?"

"That cemetery?" Christian pointed.

"Typical," Andrew muttered. But they went with that plan. Once the Moon Wolves and Emmi were situation, Andrew looked at Clara and opened his mouth to speak."

"_NO."_

Andrew shut his mouth, feeling through their Imprint that Clara wasn't going to back down. She wasn't going to let him out of her sight.

The two went on alone.

Andrew eventually stopped where the smell was strongest, maybe a mile away from the cemetery. (And the cemetery had been about 10 from the hotel. It had to be almost dawn.) They were in front of a church. Or at least it looked like a church. All the writing was in French.

"We can't play until you come out," Andrew called into the night.

Seconds passed. Then three vampires appeared silently from the shadows.

"Follow us if you want them alive," the biggest male said.

_No powers, _Clara looked at Andrew as they walked forward into the church. _I wonder why_.

The church was small, crowded with wooden pews. Andrew tensed as they walked down the aisle, expecting an attack from the three vampires who had bid them follow. They didn't attack, just went to line the walls. Andrew and Clara stopped halfway down the rows of pews, when the lights flicked on. Andrew saw there were blackout curtains over all the windows.

_There are only three of eight vampires here with powers. Two are in a back room with three non-gifted and Kendra and Alyssa. Thank goodness they're alive… The other gifted vampire is—_

"Welcome," Jane said flatly from the steps up to the stage where the minister would preach.

"Where are they?" Andrew got to the point even though he knew the answer. The Volturi had all the control here, but even they didn't know how much Clara could do and Andrew was going to use that as much as he could.

A wooden door opened behind and to the right of Jane and five vampires came out. First were the snakeheads of the vampire world. Aro, Marcus and Caius. Following them was two of the guard; they were carrying nearly motionless humans. Their eyes were shut and their breathing was shaky.

"How pleasant to finally meet," Aro began in his feathery voice.

"We've had such a lovely chat with your friends," Caius said, smirking.

"Are they hurt?" Andrew ground out.

"Not physically," Jane smiled sweetly. She looked appropriately abashed when Aro shot her a _look_ but flashed a set of lethal teeth towards Andrew and Clara when Aro looked away.

"Kendra, Alyssa," Andrew called out. "Can you hear me?"

Their eyes opened, locking on their friends. Kendra nodded and Alyssa managed a dim smile.

"Can you two talk?" Clara asked suddenly.

Andrew winced mentally that she had drawn attention to herself, but it wasn't like the vampires would forget she was there or that she was human.

The girls shrugged together, trying not to jostle themselves against their captors. "Throat hurts." Their voices were raspy. Like they had been screaming for a long time.

"Go on and let them sit," Aro gestured towards the front pew. The guards put the girls there before Clara could see it happen. "They need a rest and it's now or never."

"Let's get to the point and get this done with," Marcus said in his monotone. He was staring at the humans and Andrew in turn, feeling out their relationships. They were all new types to him and it was all that was keeping him from tuning out this whole thing completely.

"Right," Aro acquiesced. "Now, you see, all of these girls are humans. While I realize that that one," he pointed at Clara, "is bound by your shape shifter side, she still knows of our world and it would be _wisest_ for her to join us."

_He has an ulterior motive. Something isn't pure about this in his soul. No surprise but he gains something if I change._

Probably her power, Andrew realized. Did they know? Could they know? Who could tell them? Zavan? From so long ago?

"But those two," Aro went on. "Know. And are _not_ part of our world in any way. I have their sides of the story, but I would like yours, if you please." Aro held out a hand to Andrew.

Andrew kept hold of Clara as he went forward slowly, shifting her more behind him, away from the most immediate threats of Jane and the Volturi leaders. He would hear and react if the others moved.

He touched Aro's palm. Aro's milky red eyes seemed to brighten as he took in the information.

"I see… You have an alliance with the Children of the Moon. All of you."

Andrew didn't even blink. "Christian was my friend before he was a werewolf. Not even supernatural stuff can change that."

"And the other?"

"He hasn't tried to hurt us. He's teaching Christian to control himself so that they aren't dangerous."

"It isn't a question of _danger_," Cauis hissed. "It's a question of loyalty."

"Peace, Cauis," Aro said simply. "Let us discuss this privately. Or, as privately as possible," his last words were directed to Clara. Clara kept her expression neutral, focusing on Alyssa and Kendra.

The three vampires joined hands, mentally communicating through Aro.

_This isn't going to end well unless we get a miracle. Adam and Christian won't survive another day in France. Emmi is safe because of what I did to her. But I can't figure out about the girls. Or us for that matter. There aren't many options._

_Only two, really_, Andrew realized. Turn or die for the girls. They wouldn't let humans know again. Not after Grandma Bella. Their power was challenged too much after her. Clara… was a wild card. They wanted her power. And if Adam was right, they wanted him on their side too. This wasn't be good.

The meeting of vampires was broken off.

"We've come to a decision," Aro breathed. Andrew heard a _click_ of fingers snapping.

The guards pounced on the girls.

Screams and howls filled the air.

Glass shattered and the door broke down.

Suddenly the vampires were in tight formation in the front of the church, facing the dawn and the pack of wolves.

"Get the girls," a female voice ordered above the shrieks.

"Mom?"

"Get them, Andrew, their blood is flowing!"

Andrew listened and moved with summoned vampire-speed.

"They'll change," Renesmee's brown eyes flashed. "But Clara and the other werewolves aren't your battle unless they challenge you and you know it, Aro."

"Nessie, you've grown up so much," Aro eyed the pack of shape shifters. "I assume the head of this pack is your Imprint." All the vampires looked frozen and on edge.

Wolf-Jacob growled. He turned his head to Andrew, who took the hint and got the three girls to the middle of the pack.

"Clara, you'll ride on Cody, the brown-grey one on your right. Andrew, we'll take the girls. This part of the city is still asleep, we're running for it," Renesmee didn't take her eyes off the Volturi.

"Hey all, what'd I miss?" A new voice came on. Adam came up behind Renesmee.

"Get out of here," Renesmee ordered.

Adam nodded but first glanced at the vampires. "Nice to see you again, Cauis. Good to see that our kinds aren't at war anymore."

"The battle isn't over until the dogs are gone," Caius hissed, enraged.

"Ah, but we can't battle until _we_ challenge _you_. _Bon au revoir_." He left in a blink of a human eye.

"You have seen that Andrew isn't a threat. You've taken care of what is. This experiment is done," Renesmee said, stepping inside to take one of the girls from Andrew. "The sun's out, by the way. Have fun with that."

The pack turned as one and ran.


	36. GG Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Anti-climatically, they stopped two blocks over and piled into 3 vans. The wolves changed and grabbed some shorts (Amy Call and Faith Garwood obviously grabbed more than that. Andrew had never been so happy to see the irritating girls who used to pursue him in his life.) And they all hit the gas.

Jacob drove at the head of the vans, obviously. He winced constantly at the sounds coming from the venom infected girls. Renesmee, Clara and Andrew tried to talk to them but found out there wasn't much you can say to a person burning inside out.

Clara was tired. She was still suggesting to Emmi's soul to sleep. (Emmi had been carried by Christian to the vans and was in one with solely Temecula shape-shifters. Adam and Christian were in the third van with more Temecula wolves.) But she tried to shake it and said, "Let me try…"

"You're too tired," Andrew said immediately.

"You can't stop me."

"Clara—"

It was too late. Clara was gone, off in a trance.

"Will it work?" Renesmee asked Andrew.

"I don't know. Probably." Andrew collapsed against the van's wall. "Mom… how did you find us?"

"Andrew, we've been in France the whole time. Dad and I. We called the pack out a couple days ago."

"So that's why you didn't answer the phone."

"Grandma and Grandpa kept us in the loop," Renesmee reached over and mussed up Andrew's hair. "You're so brave."

"We're proud of you," Jacob added quietly from the front seat.

Andrew looked at the floor. "I.. I love you guys," he whispered. They had come so close to who knows what. Death, mostly. Becoming Volturi pawns. Whichever was worse.

"We love you, too," Andrew's mom hugged him tightly. When she let go, Andrew realized the screams had turned to whimpers.

Clara came back.

"Clara! Are you okay?"

"I'm tired," Clara said, her words slurred. Her eyes wouldn't focus. Andrew pulled her into him and she rested her head on his shoulder. "Need to sleep…"

"Sleep," Andrew said softly. "You deserve it." He listened as Clara's breathing changed slowly as she lost consciousness. He felt an odd twang in his soul, like another steel cord had fixed itself there, attaching him to the sleeping girl.

Hours later the vans stopped. It was past noon. Everyone clambered out into the sunlight (except the Twins, obviously, and a still passed out Clara).

"So, how are we going to handle two newborns?" Seth asked casually. All the wolves looked to him and Jacob. The Beta and Alpha.

Jacob sighed heavily. "One day at a time, I guess. Hopefully they'll be like Bella. They knew beforehand, too."

"But they were forcibly changed."

"But they aren't screaming."

"They're thrashing around."

The debates went on like this while Seth called home to fill everyone in. As soon as he hung up it went silent.

"It's like Alpha wolf says, guys and gals, one day at a time."

So that was the end of that.

The next discussion was Adam and Christian.

Adam was interrogated. Christian was mostly left alone as he hadn't even gone through his first full moon yet. Finally Jacob stepped in to stop the pack's onslaught of questions.

"So to be perfectly clear, what's your plan with Christian and are humans going to be hurt?"

Adam pondered this. "While it's true Children of the Moon are the human-flesh-eating werewolves, I'd honestly rather not live like that. It never occurred to me to try something else. Well, once I tried a stag but it tasted horrible."

"Try a carnivore," Jacob said dryly. "They taste better. No more humans. Our job is to protect humans and we can't get on with you so as to protect you from the leeches if you eat humans."

"Done," Adam said simply. "I'll simply have to be more careful with preparations."

"Speaking of that, what's going on tonight?"

"Christian and I will go to the mountains. The French Alps are too far away but we'll find some and stay far from humans, and find some carnivores," Adam shrugged. "It shouldn't be too hard but you might want to watch the closest towns just in case. We keep our minds but as wolves we naturally get nastier and less likely to be complying."

"Noted," Jacob snorted. "That's it for you then. Now what am I forgetting?"

"That'd be Emmi," Seth said.

Everyone looked at her. She was still sleeping. Like she had been shot with several tranquilizers. Could she get immune to Clara's soul suggestions like a person could supposedly become immune to tranqs?

"Is she going to be all right?" Adam said anxiously.

Seth looked to Jacob. Jacob looked to Andrew. Andrew looked to the van where Clara was sleeping. "I don't know," he admitted. "Clara didn't think so."

"It's been a long time since then."

"I _know_," Andrew said. "We won't know until Clara wakes up. And _no_, we aren't waking her," he added stonily at the look on Adam's face. "Now, we need to get moving if you and Christian are going to be far enough into the Alps to not be a danger to humans."

"You heard him," Jacob said. "Let's move!"


	37. GG Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Christian was getting edgy. The van he was in was racing the sun. Or was it the moon?

The shape shifters were laughing easily. Christian envied them. They were immune to the moon's power. They knew exactly who they were and what to expect when they changed. Christian hadn't even got to ask Adam about what would happen tonight and right now Adam was in Emmi's van ahead of this one.

Christian took a deep breath and regretted it immediately. He still wasn't used to his heightened senses. Everything was a thousand times more real and it grated on his nerves, making him want to lash out at everything. The only thing that stopped him was the strongest instinct—self preservation. The Volturi, the vampires, and even humans were a danger. Werewolves were apparently immortal but could be killed more easily than vampires.

The sun was hovering over the horizon when they reached some relatively safe mountains. Christian jumped out of the van, nearly wrenching off the door to do so. Adam was already out and pacing.

"Let's go," the older werewolf said tersely. He turned and ran, becoming invisible to the human eye and blurred to the vampire eye.

_I can't go that fast_, Christian thought. But even before that thought finished forming, his instincts were taking over and he was catching up to his mentor.

Everything was clear as he ran. So clear it almost hurt his eyes—almost. The wind howling in his ears should have been deafining to Christian. But of course it wasn't as Christian couldn't _not_ hear _everything_.

The stars were appearing overhead when they stopped.

Adam scanned the sky as he spoke to his student. "We're far from the humans. We hunt animals tonight. Understant?"

"Yeah." Christian's mouth was suddenly dry.

"I wish I could tell you otherwise, but it's going to be painful. Supposedly not as bad as changing into a vampire, but they only go through it once."

"Great."

Adam began to take off his clothes and shove them into a backpack that Christian hadn't noticed before. He did the same. Then Adam buried the bag. "It'll keep. It's remarkable stuff that fabric is made of."

"What's it made of?"

"Gnome hide."

"Really?"

"No," Adam snorted.

Christian opened his mouth to say more but suddenly felt very queer.

Adam felt it too. "She rises."

_la lune pleine._ The full moon.

Ice. Ice, he had been encased in ice!

Cold, so, so cold it _burned!_

Not burning, _scorching_. Melting his bones and reshaping him with fire and ice. Bones jutted out of his skin, forming claws. Screams turned to howls of agony as his skull turned canine and his speech was stolen.

Blood pounded in his ears as the ice and fire faded. The last human thought in his mind was that this body could handle his supernatural senses.

Clara woke up around 3AM. She heard quiet voices and clambered out of the van, passing her soul mate and their friends as she went.

Amy, Faith and Cody, the youngest of the wolves, were guarding the vans outside. Well, guarding meaning sitting, listening and talking. They looked up from their conversation when Clara approached.

"Where's everyone else?"

"Patrol," Cody said. "to watch for werewolves and vampires."

"The Moon Wolves lose their minds when they change," Faith said. "Or so the older one said."

"Adam said that?" Clara frowned. There was something she was supposed to remember… Adam… Adam… "Emmi!"

"She's sleeping," Amy said shortly. "Probably until you let her wake up."

There was a pause.

"Do you think she'll be different?" Cody finally asked. "Mentally, I mean."

"I don't know," Clara admitted. "I haven't done anything like this before."

A howl cut into whatever was about to be said next.

_Hunger. Flesh and blood. Juicy meat. Scent in wind. Paws push earth beneath. Closer, closer. Prey starts and flees. Chase, pounce. Rip Tear._

"Do you think they'll be OK?" Clara asked. "Adam and Christian?"

"_Supernaturals_ can take care of themselves," Amy barked a short laugh. Faith glared at her and Cody shook his head. Clara didn't understand.

_Not enough. Smell air. Brother near, eating. Ah, cat! Run._

"Now isn't the time," Faith murmured so softly that Clara couldn't hear it.

"I don't care," Amy growled loudly. "I've waited too long." She glared at Clara. "I loved him before you did. Before I was a wolf. And now I can't be a friend to you because of it.

Clara was stunned. "I see."

"We used to cahse him. Literally. Faith and me. She did it first for moral support. Then she liked him. Now she's forced to be stopped. Because of you."

"Amy!" Faith exclaimed.

"IT'S TRUE!" Amy snapped. "It's only because you never truly loved him in the first place. Not with a real human love like I do!

"And I'll never stop!"

_Thirsty… Listen. River. Go._

Clara held back tears, tired of being attacked so constantly. She turned and ran back to the van. She wished she could use her power to calm herself. But even if she could, she was too tired. She laid down and tried to sleep again, to find an escape. But the sound of the night was too much to do so. Rustling trees. Animals. Andrew breathing. Twins whimpering. Cody scolding Amy.

Would things ever die down?

Clara suddenly knew with perfect clarity.

No.

No they wouldn't.

_Sated. Need to run. Join brother. Run._

_Snap._

_Challengers! Wolf cousins. Warn with growls. Opponents come forward._

_Memory._

_Friends._

Quil and Embry watched as the Child of the Moon turned and trotted away.

_He recognized us,_ Quil thought.

_I'ts good. It'd be better if they had telepathy, though._

_Yeah._

_We run to the top. Higher, higher. Closer to the mother. Life force. Settle in her light. Mother moon._


	38. GG Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"That trip was shorter than I expected," Emmi remarked. "I can't believe the airline messed up Alyssa and Kendra's flight."

"It totally sucks," Clara said. Andrew and Christian and Adam nodded in agreement.

"I'm very happy to be going back to America with you. I have not been there for a very long time," Adam said.

Andrew and Christian glanced at each other. It possibly hadn't even been colonial America since Adam ad been there.

"I'm really sorry I passed out so long," Emmi apologized for the millionth time. "The doctors really didn't know anything? That's crazy for like five days."

Adam took Emmi's hand across the armrest that separated them. "You are well now. That's all that matters."

Andrew, Clara and Christian started a whispered conversation as Adam and Emmi talked more.

"How were they doing when they woke up?" Clara asked.

"Fine. They started screaming towards the end because it gets worse. Other than that, your trick did wonders," Andrew smiled. "The newborn madness will probably be really minimal. Gramps has 'food' for them on the plane." He hesitated, remembering something. "He had this really strange look on his face when he spoke to them. Sort of confused."

"Probably shocked at how weird their minds probably are," Christian snorted.

Alyssa and Kendra were thirsty. Their throats were burning.

"You said there was blood," Alyssa said.

"We _need_ it," Kendra implored Edward, who was flying the plane.

"Bella would you get it for them?"

Bella opened a cabinet that was really a sealed minifridge. The smell of blood filled the cabing and Bella jumped out of the way as the Twins rushed towards the precious liquid. They drank greedily, emptying all the water bottles.

"So much better," the girls sighed together.

_That tasted off_, Alyssa thought, _not quite right_.

_I think that's because it's animal blood._

"Eek!" Alyssa yelped. She stared at Kendra. _Twin?_

_Holy—_

"I was right!" Edward exclaimed.

"Surprise, surprise," Bella said dryly. "What was it this time?"

"They have powers. A power," Edward corrected himself. "They're—"

"Telepathic," the girls said. "But only between ourselves."

_Looks like we're a lot more connected than we thought, K._

_Mmmhmm. This is pretty cool. Makes up for the thirst._

_Heck the senses and strength and speed make up for the thirst!_

_Speaking of that, I wonder what Jason and Josh back home will look like through our new eyes?_ Kendra tried to remember the hotties from school and only got dim pictures.

_Hopefully pretty fine,_ Alyssa thought, finding the same problem with her memories. _I mean they were _amazing_. Especially Josh. Just a spoonful of that sugar helped the swim work-out medicine go down!_

The two burst into laughter at the old joke, relieved that they hadn't changed much through the vampire process.

"You two are going to have to talk out loud, too. Otherwise you'll confuse people," Edward said wryly.

_But that's too boring._

_And we already confused everyone anyway!_

"But not everyone is a mind reader," Edward laughed.

"Just the sexiest, century-old vampires," Bella chimed in, skipping to the front of the plane to kiss her husband. The plane wobbled for a second and then Bella poked her head back into the cabin and grinned at the girls. "Sorry."


	39. GG Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"We're not going home?" the girls asked, stunned.

"No," Edward said apologetically. "It's sunny there. You'd sparkle."

"What about our parents?" Alyssa demanded.

"And everything else?" Kendra added.

"We're taking care of it for you," Edward said. He explained everything in great detail. At the end he said, "We're going to our old house in Washington, secretly. We'll land in the mountains and wait until nightfall to run there, hunting along the way. Then we'll get settled in and see who's going to do what once we're all together."

"All?" Bella asked.

"The Cullens, the packs, and the Children of the Moon."

"What about Emmi?" Alyssa asked. "She and Adam are sort of together."

"Sort of?" Kendra snorted. _I sort of walked in on them kissing…a lot._

_And you didn't tell me?_

_We went to go get chocolate soon after._

_Oh. OK, you're forgiven._

"You two are so odd," Edward said.

"Thank you," they said aloud.

The group followed the plan Edward laid out for them.

Hunting was an interesting experience from Edward's point of view. He watched as the girls moved in perfect sync and took down several mountain lions within two minutes. They would be fierce fighters.

Fights… he couldn't help but know one was coming. A big one.

"What's the matter?" Bella asked quietly in their cottage that night. Everyone had arrived and were all visiting in the big house but Edward and Bella had big them all goodnight a while ago.

"I think that the balance of our world is about to shift," Edward replied.

"Ah," Bella nodded. "The Volturi." She thought for a moment. "We can take them."

"_You_," Edward said. "Will be watching from a safe distance."

"So you admit there's going to be a fight."

"There's going to be a war."

Two evenings later, the girls were hunting with Rosalie. Rose took them into the mountains and they all let loose, hunting without restraint.

Alyssa loved the hunt. She'd never admit that she loved the blood rushing down her throat, finally feeling natural at something. The only person who knew was Kendra because of the link, but Kendra wasn't going to say anything.

Suddenly she smelled something amazing through the link. Kendra was near the best smelling thing they had ever caught scent of. She flew to where Kendra was.

Only to be snapped out of her love of hunting by her humanity.

Kendra was holding a lifeless human in horror. Her mind was blank with shock.

_Oh my god_, Kendra managed to think.

_Twin_, Alyssa thought, trying to keep it together, _it's not—_

Rosalie appeared just then, hundreds of yards away.

Kendra took flight.

Alyssa followed.

"I couldn't find them," Rosalie said only minutes before the sun was supposed to come up behind the clouds. "They got too far. They reached the ocean."

All the vampires sat in a stunned silence. None of the werewolves, humans or hybrids were awake.

"We know," Edward said.

"I saw what happened," Alice murmured.

"What are we going to do?" Rosalie wrung her hands. She felt responsible.

"We'll look for them," Emmett said. "We'll call in favors, babe. We'll find them."

Carlisle was silent. He knew that the only way the girls were coming back was if they felt free to. And they likely didn't.

It was quiet for a while. Then there was a thumping as Andrew came downstairs.

"Morning everybody," he yawned. "What's happening?"

All the golden eyed beings were statues.

"Guys?" Andrew blinked and looked at each of them. "Wait… where are the girls?"

Rosalie bit her lip. "Andrew… I'm so sorry…."


	40. Planets Align

Planets Align

**Disclaimer, I do not own any of the Twilight characters.**

**Please review! It really helps!**


	41. PA Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Everything had been dark green and dark grey for 46 hours, 20 minutes and 37 seconds. It was dark above the surface again. Nighttime.

_Kendra we have to go up,_ Alyssa thought. _We don't know where we are._

_We aren't far enough yet,_ Kendra thought irrationally. Frozen within her mind's eye was the form of the boy she had killed. Limp, lifeless, bloodless. Even venom couldn't have saved him.

_It wasn't your fault,_ Alyssa thought gently for the umpteenth time. _It would have been me if I had been the closer one._

_But you weren't!_ Kendra's mental voice rose in despair. _I was!_

Alyssa tried to hide her mental sigh from her 'twin'. Before they had changed the two had always joked about having mental telepathy. They must have been closer than they thought because after they'd been bitten and turned vamp they had become telepathically connected. Alyssa imagined it was like what the shape-shifter werewolf pack felt like.

_I heard that._

_Of course you did. Look, we haven't breathed in almost two days. Losing the action and sense of smell is disquieting. Please, let's go up and have a look around. We must be in the eastern hemisphere by now. We've gone west and south for a long time._

_All right,_ Kendra gave in. _But one more hunt first, just to be safe._

_Ugh, all right. I still hate seafood._

The two stopped and listened intently, trying to hear between the moving waters.

Down and left, the two thought together while moving that way simultaneously. Hunting wasn't nearly as good when they lost the sense of smell. But maybe it was better that way. They were newborns after all, and couldn't risk losing control again. Even this was testing it.

Slicing through the water faster than any fish, they took down the shark together.

_Seafood doesn't have nearly enough in it_, Alyssa thought when the shark was drained. They had drunk it together, able to not be territorial because they trusted each other completely. We'll have to hunt on land again.

_I know, I know. One more for each of us_, Kendra suggested. Well, 'suggested' wasn't the word as Alyssa knew that Kendra wouldn't go up without a decent amount of blood in her.

It took about half an hour more to locate and drink two more large sea creatures that they really weren't sure of what they were. Then they surfaced.

"Hey," Alyssa said, testing her voice out. "Land."

Ugh, I was hoping we wouldn't find any.

"We have to practice speaking out loud," Alyssa reminded Kendra. "It's like Edward's character said, 'it's hard to appear normal when you're answering thoughts instead of words'."

"Yeah, but he's a mind reader, we're just telepathically connected," Kendra pointed out.

"You know what I mean. Come on." Alyssa started swimming to the shore. She was delighted to realize that her new body remembered how to swim from those years on the swim team in high school. _I wonder…_ she thought. She switched strokes, dolphin-kicking and moving her arms in great big windmill-like circles. _My butterfly stroke is perfect!_

_I still like freestyle,_ Kendra's tone was amused and happy. _We're so fast!_

They reached land within the minute.

_I wonder where we are._

_We can try to find a sign, _Kendra thought._ As long as we stay away from humans_.

Alyssa peered into the darkness. _Too late, there's a town over there. And why would there be a sign but no people to read it, anyway?_

_I 'll you go read it._

_OK._

Kendra ran, jetting through the 'darkness'.

"Let's see," Kendra said out loud. "Good, it's in English…" _Twin? We're in—_

"Who are you?" A deep voice said. Kendra tensed, smelling the super-sweetness.

_Don't panic,_ Alyssa instructed.

_That's a Russian accent. Ehmygawd, RUSSIAN VAMPIRE._

_Twin! Just turn but be ready. I'm going to try and come up behind him._

All of this was thought between the tenth of a second it took Kendra to answer the man. "I don't think that's your business." She turned to him slowly, not wanting to trigger a fight. She didn't know how to fight.

"Ah, but you're in my territory," he chuckled. "So you are my business."

"I see," Kendra raised an eyebrow. "Lee."

_Lee? You're giving him your middle name? That's not like you._

_Would you like to give him our real names and then find out he's Volturi?_

"Maksim," the man said. "What are you doing in my territory, Lee?"

Kendra shrugged. "I've been swimming for a while and wanted to get back to land and this is what I found."

"_Who are you?"_

"_Who wants to know?"_

_A low laugh. "This is my territory, girl. I'll be asking the questions." His accent told Kendra where they were._

"_Wise guy, huh?"_

_What the heck? _Kendra thought, watching the scene through Alyssa's eyes. She almost missed what Maksim was saying.

_How do we get out of this, Twin?_ Kendra thought.

_We both make up some excuse and run towards each other. Safety in numbers._

_They're older than us! They know how to fight!_

_We're newborns. We're _stronger_._

"Lee?" Maksim repeated patiently.

"No, I'm planning on staying by the water, actually," Kendra made up on the spot. "I rather enjoy swimming and need to get to Mexico anyway."

_Mexico?_

_Give me a break!_

"I see," the man said. "I was planning on traveling as well. I'm looking for someone. Perhaps you will allow me to go with you? Mexico is one of the few places I have not searched yet."

"I'm more of a solo traveler." Kendra shrugged apologetically. "Excuse me." She started walking back the way she came, turning her back on the man.

Wrong move.

_Twin!_

He pounced, Kendra ducked out of the way and a dance ensued. Him jumping and her dodging. Until he feinted skillfully and Kendra found herself pinned to the ground.

"What did I do to you?" she yelled in outrage.

"You're key," He said calmly. "You're key in my search. You don't have a choice but to accept some company."

Kendra threw him off and was on her feet before him.

"Ah, a newborn."

Kendra ran. _Get to the water! _She saw Kendra start moving in her mind's eye. The other guy followed her. _Shake him!_

_That's easiest done in the water when we dim their senses! The other guy is following you, or am I hearing better through your ears?_

Kendra hated when she was right.

Kendra passed the other man running to the water and caught up with Kendra at the water's edge. They jumped in together, their movements synced again.

_Where to?_

_Africa!_

_Where were we anyway? _Alyssa remembered to ask. She saw the sign in Kendra's memory._ Australia? That'd explain my guy's accent._

_But not mine._

_They're vampires. Probably nomads. What, they're going to stay in the same place all their life?_

_Point taken. C'mon._

The two swam on; unaware of what bigger thing had just happened. 


	42. PA Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"I still can't believe it happened," Clara sighed. "Why?"

"I don't know," Andrew said, feeling desperate. Their Imprint was growing stronger all the time and Clara's sadness was affecting him, making him need to make it better. But he couldn't and it was driving him crazy. "They panicked. Rose said Kendra's scent was on the body…"

"But why'd they both go?" Clara asked. "If Alyssa had stayed then we could have found Kendra!" Edward had told them about the telepathy.

"Maybe it was instinct," Andrew suggested. "The fight or flight thing triggered in Kendra and then Alyssa followed without thinking because of the bond."

"She would have followed with or without it," Christian said, coming into the TV room. "You know what those two are like."

"That's true," Clara said quietly, calming down a little but not feeling any less sad.

It was quiet for a second. Then Christian turned to Andrew.

"Are you gonna let your grandpa do all that stuff?"

"The experiments?" Andrew said. "I don't know."

"Why not? Imagine if you could do a bunch of stuff! It'll help when the fight happens."

"There might not be a fight," Andrew said.

"Bull," Christian snorted. "You saw their faces. It's only a matter of time."

"Christian's right," Clara said. "Everyone but you had accepted that."

"I accept the possibility. I also accept that if there is, _someone_ is going into hiding in Venezuela."

"Not a chance."

"Who wants food?" Renesmee came into the room with a tray of random food items. "Where's Adam?"

"He'll be back tomorrow or the next day," Christian said. "He needed to find a book he hid in Oregon. Apparently it's a werewolf history book."

"All wolves or just Moon?" Clara wanted to know.

"It traces back to the first Child of the Moon, I guess, and then goes from there until about fifty years ago when the last Child of the Moon was made. At every new wolf the maker updates the book. So maybe the shape-shifters will be in it this time." Christian reached for a slice of pizza.

Andrew remembered the last time all the group had been together. He and Christian had had a wrestling match for a piece of pizza that ended in a draw. Back then was just the very start of everything now.

What could have changed the way things had turned out?

If they hadn't gone to France? If Christian hadn't been bitten? If the girls hadn't found out?

No. They'd still be pre-possible war. Just short a few friends.

"Andrew?" Renesmee repeated.

"Drewy!" A small hand hit him upside the head.

"Ow! Alice!"

"Pay attention," the pixie- like vampire said. "I saw them!"

"What'd you see?"

"They're swimming underwater," Alice said. "In an ocean." Her eyes suddenly went out of focus. "I can see their destination now. But I don't know where it is. They're on a beach. Being confronted by two more of us. Red eyes. It's twilight." She snapped out of it. "I can't see what the place is…"

"A beach…" Andrew said. "So they're on some coast of some piece of land. That's something."

All eyes questioned him and his sanity.

"It's a little more than nothing," Alice corrected. "If they make another decision anywhere with any distinctive land marks or signs then we'll find them."

"Who were the two others?" Clara asked.

"Never seen them before. They were two guys. I think one was Russian."

Clara smiled a little, remembering some of Kendra's favorite vampire books. Her favorite characters were usually hot Russian guys. That figured.

Now if only they'd make a decision soon! 


	43. PA Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"I think we lost them," Alyssa said, looking around the water carefully. It was just before sunset and she and Kendra were bobbing up and down in the wake, careful not to let the sunlight hit them.

"Let's swim closer to shore and hang tight until sunset."

They re-submerged.

_I feel like this is a weird movie plot, K._

_You and me both. I can't believe that guy was Russian! Do you know how long I wished for a hot Russian vampire?_

_Yes,_ Alyssa thought dryly. _I do._

_Oh, right, _Kendra's mental voice laughed. They waited until the water changed colors, indicating sunset, to go to shore.

_I wonder what part of Africa we're in._

_It doesn't matter. We need to find shelter for daytime and a food supply._

_You aren't the practical one, K. You're avoiding humans._

_Do you blame me?_

_Of course not. Let's go._

_You know I never thought I'd like to run._

_Me neither. It's so crazy!_

_That works considering it's us._

_Hey how about those big rocks? I see some caves._

_Where? Oh, there. OK let's go check them out._

The two ran to the caves, reaching them in thirteen seconds flat.

_I like this. It's deep enough._

_Kind of cozy. Glad I'm not claustrophobic anymore._

_How do you know?_

_I can just—_

"Agghh!" The two yelled as something dropped on top of them, pinning them to the ground. They started to snarl and tried to throw off their attackers, trying to bite and kick.

The Russian suddenly released Kendra, randomly choosing to help his friend restrain Alyssa. Kendra scrambled up, in full on fight mode. Until she saw Maksim's hands on her twin's neck.

She swore. "What do you want with us?"

"Not you," Maksim said dismissively. "We've been looking for _this_ one."

"This one?" the Australian guy sounded excited.

"Da," **Yes.** The Russian said. He glanced to Kendra impassively. "Solo traveler? I think not. Now, though, you may be. _Do svidaniya_. **Goodbye.**"

"It's not '_do svidaniya_' yet," Kendra growled. "You are going to let go of her and leave us."

Maksim looked at the other guy. The Australian looked anxious. "I just want to stop scaring her."

"I'm not scared," both girls growled.

_How do we get out of this?_

_Why were they looking for me?_

_You attack Maksim& I'll flip Aussie._

_Now!_

The girls sprang into action. It didn't go quite as planned. Maksim swatted Kendra away and then began fighting her with skill yet again.

Aussie flipped Alyssa with him and pinned her.

"I'm not trying to harm you," he whispered. His crimson eyes were sincere.

"Red eyes," Alyssa snarled.

Aussie kissed her.

Alyssa tried to feel repulsed, revolted. Absolutely disgusted.

But she couldn't.

He tasted so sweet. Smelled so nice. Something about him drew her in…

_Twin!_

_Ack!_ Alyssa realized she was kissing him back, had her arms wrapped around his neck and was trying to get closer. She jumped away. Together, she and Kendra backed against the rocks, giving them less angles to come from.

"What do you want?" Alyssa demended shakily.

"Explain or you'll be on your little search for a long time," Kendra ordered.

"We have been," Maksim looked impassive. "It's a gift of mine. I find things."

"I asked him to find my soul mate," Aussie broke in, sadly. He looked utterly rejected and yet hopeful.

"And lucky for you, you are already a vampire," Maksim looked at Alyssa sarcastically. "It's a painful process and my friend would have hated to have to watch you go through that."

"Well good for your friend," Kendra said as Alyssa couldn't speak. "We're leaving. You're not following. _Vy menya ponimayete_?"** Do you understand me?**

"Wrong context but yes," Maksim smirked. Aussie looked shocked. The girls ran.

To discover they were being followed.

They stopped 100 feet apart.

"What the heck?" Kendra yelled. Only she didn't say 'heck'.

"I said we understand, no? Not that we listen," Maksim laughed without emotion.

_This guy is starting to bug me._

The girls felt like they ran up and down Africa all night until they were back were they started at dawn was approaching. Then they ducked into a cave.

And were followed.

_THE SUN JUST CAME UP! THOSE— - - RED EYES!_

_Kendra! Chill. We'll lose them tonight._

_We better hunt tonight, too._


	44. PA Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"They decided they were going to leave a cave tonight," Alice announced glumly. "So it's another dud."

Andrew exhaled deeply. "It's fine. We'll get them eventually."

"Ready?" Carlisle called from upstairs.

"Coming," Andrew muttered. He was edgy because he hadn't seen Clara today. It was time for experiment number one.

"All right, we're just going to start with blood and DNA," Carlisle said. "I would have done this sooner but your parents were against it."

"They still are," Andrew said dryly, taking off his sweatshirt. Carlisle inserted a needle and the red semi-human substance started to fill a bag. "So what are we going to do with all this?"

"Figure out what side of you is dominant, if anything is dormant, and test anything unusual that comes up as we go along."

"So we're basically winging it."

"You're not exactly the norm," Carlisle chucked. "I said that your mother was one-of-a-kind and I was wrong but I'm fairly sure you _are_ the only of your kind."

"Probably. So we're just winging it."

"Yes." Carlisle handed Andrew a pair of nail clippers and a glass vial.

"Really?"

"Yes." Carlisle also snipped off some of the hybrid's hair with small scissors and dropped that DNA sample into another vial while Andrew cut off a nail.

"Why does my life always seem like a movie or book plot?" Andrew asked. He thought that a creepy, techno-y mad scientist soundtrack would be appropriate right then. He could almost hear it… it sounded so real in his head.

"Emmett, will you please stop the music?" Carlisle smiled, knowing that the bear-like vampire could hear him perfectly well. Emmett must have planted a speaker in here. Ah, in the wall by Andrew's head. He'd get it out later.

The music stopped.

Andrew couldn't help but smile a little. It was just like his light-hearted great-uncle to pull something like that.

Carlisle had Andrew's nail under his microscope.

"This is unusual."

"Everything is going to be unusual," Andrew pointed out.

"True, but these look extremely similar to the pictures of canine nails I've seen."

"Um, I am kinda half werewolf. I thought you didn't go to vet school."

"That's right," Carlisle agreed. "It's just a hobby right now. A few books and online classes here and there."

Andrew shook his head. How much a person could get done when they didn't need to sleep was amazing.


	45. PA Chapter 5

Chapter 5

_How bored you can get when you can't sleep is amazing,_ Kendra thought. She was sitting between Aussie and Alyssa and as far from Maksim as possible. _How long do you think they're going to tail us after tonight?_

_I don't know, _Alyssa thought tiredly. She had been over thinking the soul mate thing and it had her worn out mentally. _We just need to lose them. Or go home and ask the wolves to make them go away._

_I don't think the wolves would be very fond of me right now._

_They'd understand! More or less. _

_Less,_ Kendra thought, convinced of it. _We just need to lose them._

_But if Maksim's power is to 'find things' we can't run, can we? Unless we have a shield._

_Don't even go there!_

_Kendra, you're being unreasonable. It's the safest place._

_It's the place I killed someone, _Kendra thought hollowly. _Where our friends are probably disgusted with me. Glad I'm gone._

_That's not true! They all care about you! I'd bet anything they're worried sick!_

_Then they can find us, _Kendra retorted. _If they want to then _they_ can!_

"So…" a voice broke in. "I didn't catch your names."

_That's not awkward,_ Alyssa thought sarcastically. She and Kendra looked at each other in amusement. _What should we tell them?_

"I told your friend to call me Lee," Kendra rolled her eyes. "You can call her Marie."

"So those aren't your real names then, huh?" Aussie laughed. Alyssa wished that she didn't like the sound. Stupid psychology. By saying that she was his soul mate, true or untrue, he was making her subconsciously attracted to him.

Well it wasn't going to work

"My name is Shayne," Aussie continued. "I've been a vampire for about twenty years. Can't believe I'm still alive after so many close shaves with the sun, though. All the times I've almost been fried," he shook his head self-condescendingly.

_Is he for real?_ The girls thought together.

"The sun won't fry you," Alyssa finally spoke. "You sure you've been around for twenty years?"

"I'm a vampire," Shayne said slowly, like this wasn't obvious. "I have high-powered senses, speed and strength, and I drink blood. The sun will kill me."

"No, but if you do get some sunlight, the Volturi might," Alyssa rolled her eyes.

"Who?"

_He's joking._

Kendra looked at Shayne like he was crazy. "Uh, The Volturi are basically vampire royalty who enforce our laws. Infractions equal death. Sunlight is an infraction, not death itself."

Shayne's eyes were wide. "So what will the sun do?"

_Are there any humans around? _Alyssa thought.

_Not that I hear._

Alyssa crawled to the front of the cave and looked out. "The sun," she said, standing. "Will turn you into a fairy." She stepped out for a second and watched as Shayne's jaw dropped at the rainbows her skin threw.

_Get back in here!_

Alyssa laughed and stepped into the dark again. "Really? You didn't know."

"I wasn't told," Shayne looked at Maksim, exasperated.

"I needed something to entertain myself."

"So you didn't tell him about the freaking _Volturi?_ Or that they hold his life and death in their hand?" Kendra exploded. She took a breath to go off on a rant, which could literally last days in this body. She just knew it.

Maksim cut in, "It's none of your business."

"He could have accidently broken a rule and died!"

"I taught him the rules," Maksim said harshly. "I've been around for millennia. I can handle my student.

He paused.

"Former student, actually. You just told him the very last thing I had been holding back." He turned to Shayne. "Vy znaete, teperʹ vse. Prosto derzhatʹ yazyk za zubami ob etom, poka eti "opredelennye obstoyatelʹstva" pridumatʹ.." **You know everything now. Just keep your mouth shut about it until those 'certain circumstances' come up.**

Shayne nodded. He was still staring at Alyssa, like he thought the sparkling was exclusive to her only.

_This is going to be a really long day,___Alyssa thought, thinking of Kendra's bad mood, Maksim's unpleasantness and Shayne's…Shayne-ness.

Sighing, Alyssa leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes, thinking of places to go tonight.


	46. PA Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"So what did Carlisle say?" Clara asked.

"That there's a lot lying dormant," Andrew answered. They were in his room with Christian, all playing a video game. "On the supernatural sides. Human seems to be dominant, which is why I look like this and not some pale, hairy creature."

"What's next on the list?"

"Trying to get the vampire under some sort of tabs. I've been all vamp before so we figure try something vaguely familiar." Andrew shrugged.

"Don't you have to be angry for that?" Clara asked lightly. Or it was supposed to be light. Andrew could hear the ever-so-slight strain in the question.

"Mostly desperate," Andrew answered.

"Desperation causes anger because we get mad at being helpless," Clara said quietly.

"When'd you become a philosopher?" Andrew teased.

Clara just laughed and killed Christian's character on the screen.

"Hey! I was just about to take out Andrew!"

"You snooze, you lose."

It was dark when the door opened to the room.

"I'm back."

"I thought I smelled something funny," Andrew said. "What's up, Adam?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "I'll be taking Christian now. We have stuff to read."

Christian stood and followed Adam out.

"He's been in a bad mood ever since leaving Europe."

"Ever since leaving Emmi," Clara corrected. "But it's just not safe for her here."

"Because she's a human?"

"Because she's a human," Clara agreed, "without powers."

"Almost had you."

"Not even close."

"Hey! Cut the cute and get down here," Emmett yelled up the stairs. "Alice is seeing something!"

Human speed not fast enough, Andrew swung Clara onto his back and she clung onto him automatically, her body going faster than her mind. Andrew ran out of his room and jumped off the upstairs banister to the first floor.

Clara let go abruptly, toppling to the floor.

"Clara?"

"I'm okay," Clara managed. "Just…freaked."

"Now who does that sound like?" Edward came in and helped Clara up.

"Oh hush," Bella called.

"And hurry up," Emmett added.

The three went into the huge kitchen.

Alice was just coming out of it. Jasper was holding her hand patiently and Rosalie was standing nearby with Esme.

"They're going to Rio de Janero," Alice said, surprised. "What is it with newborns and Rio?"

"Why are we all having fun at my expense?" Bella asked plaintively.

"Because we can't tease you about being klutzy anymore," Emmett laughed. "So we find substitutes."

"Thanks Emmett."

"Hello?" Rose said. "Who's coming to Rio with me?"


	47. PA Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Maksim was glad for the break from the Voice.

It was his gift. He had a Voice in his head that gave him all sorts of clues to what he wanted to find.

Right now he wanted to find sleep, so the Voice was silent.

Shayne was making such a fool of himself over the girl. And then that other one, she was infuriating. He had never met someone who made his skin crawl so much.

And then the looks the two gave each other, the random bursts of laughter.

They must be insane.

Night came quickly. The girls left the cave, tailed by Shayne who was tailed my Maksim who had nothing better to do.

As expected the girls went for the water.

Shayne looked beseechingly at Maksim.

"Fine."

They followed, swimming with their heads above the water.

"I cannot follow her forever," Maksim said plaintively.

"Just until I can convince her to give me a chance," Shayne said.

"She will not with her friend around. And they seem like the type that are 'attached at the hip'."

"I need to get her alone then." Shayne thought about it for a bit. Maksim had the feeling he wasn't going to like what would come next. "Do you think that you could—"

"No."

"You don't even—"

"You wanted me to separate 'Lee' from 'Marie' for a while."

"So you knew," Shayne said. "Why not?"

"Did you not hear me say they were attached at the hip? Have you not seen the way they moved? They're always in synchronization and it does not seem deliberate. There is something we do not know that will make what you're asking impossible.

"Besides, what _if _they were separated and then she ran from you again? It would take that much longer to find each other and then her. And the whole thing would repeat itself."

Shayne was quiet.

They spent the day underwater, still following Maksim's Voice.

The next night they reached shore.

"Oni ne daleko." **They are not far.**

The game of follow-the-leader began.


	48. PA Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Edward, can you hear them?" Rosalie asked.

"Not yet."

"He'll tell us, Rose," Jasper's Southern twang was more pronounced than usual. He looked at Alice and Emmett and Bella. "With the six of us they won't run."

"We aren't threatening them," Bella said firmly.

"We just need them to know they need to come back," Alice said quietly, scanning the future.

"Carlisle was against them being forced into it," Emmett rubbed the back of his neck, still in his human habits.

"We aren't forcing them," Rose said, a bit frantically. "They just need to know. I mean, wouldn't you be uncertain about coming back after—you know?"

"It wasn't your fault, Rosalie," Bella said yet again. "It wasn't anyone's."

"I hear them." Edward burst into a run and all followed him, going into the formation they had planned. Bella shielded them, in case one of the two males was a mind reader or something.

Circling the place, the Cullens stopped and looked to Edward. He had a fist up, in the signal for 'wait'.

They waited for a long time.

Then the fist came down.

The circle tightened.

And then there were ten.

"What's going on?" A Russian voice said.

There were gasps of shock.

_How did you find us?_ The girls demanded of Edward. Kendra sounded scared and Alyssa relieved.

"Nice to see you two can make decisions for yourselves," Alice said casually. "Want to fill us in?"

_Ohhhh_, the girls thought. They relayed stuff that had happened to Edward.

"I see," Edward said with no particular emotion in his voice. He looked the girls in the eyes, surprised to see that they were quickly lightening.

"Girls, please," Rose cut in, "come back."

Edward heard Kendra's mental shock and Alyssa's unintentional, non-scolding, I-told-you-so.

"But I—" Kendra whispered. "You know."

"So have I," Alice said.

"Me too," Emmett added.

"And me." Jasper said, "many times over."

"As have I," Edward ended. "So has Esme, though she couldn't come."

"Only three of us haven't," Bella said anxiously.

"And I have killed," Rose said. "Just not drank."

_See? _Alyssa thought. _They still want you as part of the family_.

"Of course we do," Edward said.

"What's going on?" one of the men interrupted. "You all aren't making sense."

"We are," Edward said coolly. "Just not to an outsider." He raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me, a would-be insider."

"Come on, girls," Rosalie held out a hand. "Please."

"Yes," both said together.

"Zhdat." **Wait.**

Everyone looked at the Russian.

The Russian was looking at Kendra.

"You are part of the Cullens."

"She is," Bella said, seeing Kendra hesitate to call herself that.

"The rebel Cullens. And you two did not mention this." Maksim looked ticked.

"We had no reason to," Alyssa retorted.

"Net prichiny? With the Volturi against them and I with knowledge that could bring the Volturi to their knees?"

It was silent for a heartbeat.

"How the heck would we know that?" Kendra didn't use 'heck' again. "You've barely spoken. It's been Shayne over there talking all the time!"

"My budem s vami," Maksim said. **We are going with you.**

"No you aren't!" Kendra yelled. They bickered back and forth until Kendra got up in his face and punched him. Then she was pulled backward into a protective circle and Emmett was restraining a non-resistant Maksim.

Maksim laughed. "I am not going to hurt you, 'Lee.' I would ally with your coven if they will allow it.

"All the whispers of late speak of impending doom for the Cullens. And I have knowledge that will help to tear the Volturi apart, hurt them immensely. Make the loss of your side minimal when it begins as they will fight amongst themselves. If used correctly.

"I borʹba nachnet·sya." **And the fight **_**will**_** begin.**

Another silence.

Jasper spoke. "It'd be useful." He looked at Alice.

Alice's eyes were blank. "I think he should come."

Edward saw what was in both of their minds and nodded. He tried to hear the knowledge in Maksim's mind, but only heard him thinking in Russian about why he had not found out whose coven the girls belonged to. He had assumed they were on their own but hadn't thought about their creators.

Kendra and Alyssa looked stricken but were quiet for once. Actually, they were in mental shock, yelling to each other in their minds but not able to open their mouths to convey intelligible words.

"All right then," Emmett said. "You two come with me and Jasper and Edward. We'll take the ground home."

"We'll fly," Rose said tersely.

"So what's happened?" Bella asked in the plane. Rose was at the controls and she and Alice were drinking with the Twins.

They told them everything. Swimming and seafood. Signs in Australia. Caves in Africa. About the males and their soul mate theory. It sounded so book-plot like. A filler book plot at that.

"So you don't know much about Maksim?" Alice asked.

"Apparently he's got an agenda against the Volturi," Kendra said. "He barely talked until you guys showed up."

"It's Shayne that wouldn't shut up," Alyssa added. She was still unsure what she thought about Shayne. Except that it was all in her head. The attraction part.

_Yeah, right._

_What's that supposed to mean?_

_I haven't ever seen you that interested in a guy. I mean, I didn't know you when you had your one boyfriend, but still._

_Don't remind me._

_You're scared_, Kendra realized.

_Get out of my head!_

"So we're going back to Washington? Who's there?" Alyssa asked Bella and Alice.

"All the vamps, both wolf types and Clara. By the way," Alice added, "Adam's in a sucky mood because he hasn't seen Emmi lately."

"Maybe we need to fix that," Alyssa said.

"It isn't safe there," Alice said, sounding like she was saying someone else's words.

"Why not? We're all vegetarians."

It was quiet.

"She has a point," Bella said.

They reached the house by the next sunset.

Clara's shriek of joy made them jump and they hugged her carefully when she ran out of the house.

"WHERE HAVE YOU TWO BEEN? WHY DID YOU EVEN GO? DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE WERE?" She went on and on and on.

Andrew appeared outside the door, looking for Clara. He smelled the vampire scents and stared at the group.

He walked slowly over, not really believing it until he was hugging the pair of them.

"Missed you guys." Andrew felt tears on his face and wiped them off fast; glad he was still taller than them.

They all got inside the house eventually and met everyone in the kitchen. It was really becoming more of a planning station than anything.

Bella caught Esme and Edward up. Christian and Adam came in so the whole story was restarted from somewhere in the middle.

"Sweet there's gonna be a fight!"

"Only you, Christian," Alyssa and Kendra said. "Only you."

Adam looked at a globe that someone had placed on the kitchen. "All the pink dots are?"

"Vampires," Carlisle said. "Those are places that we can usually find our friends and allies." He looked at Jacob and Renesmee. "We've gathered them all before."

"Big crowd. I think we have a chance."

_I think he's going to like Maksim,_ Alyssa thought.

_Don't even think about that *#$%$._

_Kendra!_

"So we need that info and the military vamp before we start to plan," Adam said.

"Yep," Jacob said. "So for now, who wants food?"


	49. PA Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Shayne went straight to Alyssa when he got to the Cullen's. Or he tried to. Andrew stopped him.

"Where are you going?"

"To see—"

"Yeah, don't think so. The girls have their own room they aren't letting guys in. How about you go meet the rest of the family." It wasn't a question.

Shayne stopped himself from rolling his eyes and went.

"Andrew," Alyssa whispered from the balcony.

Andrew looked up and saw all the girls.

_Thank you_, Alyssa mouthed. Then they all disappeared into the aforementioned bedroom.

Shayne was shocked at how many beating hearts were in the backyard.

All the wolves were there. All the gold-vampires were there.

The red eyes felt somewhat cornered.

Maksim didn't show concern. "We wish to be your allies. Why assemble a battalion?"

"This is our family," Carlisle said. "Not a war force."

"Big family," Shayne muttered. It looked like a war force to him.

"What's this information?" Edward asked. He read Maksim's mind as it surfaced. "Oh. That."

"I haven't told you."

"I have a gift too," Edward said wryly. "A good deal of us do. How will that situation help us?"

Maksim stayed silent as his plan ran through his mind.

Edward looked surprised. He relayed the information to Carlisle.

"That's a low blow, son," Carlisle said, uncomfortably.

"They're going to kill our family and friends," Alice said quietly. "We need to go as low as possible. I can't see the outcome because of _some_ people. But low punches work better with the Volturi.

Carlisle sighed. "Only if it comes to the worst. Jasper?"

Jasper stepped forward, a map in his hand. "These are general locations of friends, places we can fight, and obviously where Volterra is.

"First off, we need people to go find friends of ours, people to receive them, and a way to link between these two groups very quickly. Telepathy would be best." He looked at the wolves.

All the wolves looked to their Alphas. Jacob nodded. Sam did so too, slower.

"Some of our friends are hard to find," Carlisle said. "The vampire paired with them needs to be an able tracker."

"I will," Edward said.

"No, you and I need to be here," Jasper shook his head. "It's where our gifts are best used."

"I will," a high voice said.

Jasper looked at Alice. "No."

"You already know I'm going to win," Alice pouted. "Spare the theatrics, darlin'."

"We'll talk later."

The pairs were eventually roughly decided. Then it came to Maksim.

"I will go," he said quietly. "I am a tracker. I will do whatever it takes to take down the Volturi."

The group was quiet. No wolf trusted the new stranger enough to work with him well.

"We don't have a partner for you," Edward said, mentally scanning the pack. "Unless…"

"Yes!" Alice said. "Do it!"

"It might work," Edward said slowly.

"It WILL!" Alice whined. "Stop stalling!"

Jasper sighed. "What is it?"

"Kendra," Edward said reluctantly.

"She's PERFECT!" Alice said, aware that Kendra was listening in shock upstairs.

"But does it stretch that far?" Carlisle asked.

"It might," Edward said.

"If it doesn't, contrary to what I see, they can come back," Alice said impatiently. "It's got to be her."

Maksim was confused. "Who is Kendra?"

"You'll like her a lot," Alice told him happily. "Now, what's next?"

Jasper and Edward looked suspiciously at Alice but moved on.


	50. PA Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"It's nice to be out in the daytime," Alyssa said. "All the nights were getting boring."

"Quit changing the subject," Kendra snapped. "I'm not going with him."

"But Alice said you'd meet the guy of your dreams if you went tracking," Alyssa pointed out.

"It's not worth it if I have to go with that—"

"Time to go," Bella poked her head in the door. "Oh, come on, Kendra. If he's that bad then just beat him up. You're still only what? A few weeks old?"

"Fine…" Kendra grumbled. "But if I can't hear you," she pointed at Alyssa. "I'll be back faster than you can complete that fanta—"

"SHUTUP!" Alyssa screeched.

Kendra laughed the group headed downstairs.

Clara went over to Andrew. The Twins stayed together and the Moon Wolves were nowhere to be seen.

Maksim didn't move from the kitchen table even though he heard Kendra enter.

Shayne went over to Alyssa. "Have a nice night?"

Alyssa ignored him.

"Everyone get in your pairs and find your ride," Jasper said. "This sounds like I'm a school teacher directing a field trip. Just get. Find your assignments and anyone else you can get who you can confirm as safe by calling Alice."

Rosalie went with Embry to find the American Nomads.

Emmett went with Quil to find the Romanians.

Esme went with Paul to find the Amazons.

Alice went with Collin to find the Egyptians.

Kendra and Maksim met together reluctantly. They had to find the European Nomads.

"Vashe nastoyashchyee imya Kendra?" Maksim asked somewhat civilly. **Your real name is Kendra?**

"Yep. Let's go." _Just for the record, I'm EXTREMELY TOTALLY END-OF-THE-WORLD-I'M-READY-TO-KILL-ALICE-AND-EDWARD UPSET ABOUT THIS._

_Oh? And here I thought that you were jumping up and down with joy. It's either this or everyone dies._

Kendra contemplated that for a moment.

_Twin!_

_Sorry, sorry. I know this is for the best but he's such an arrogant little—_

_Yeah I'm not too thrilled about being left as a receiver with Shayne either,_ Alyssa cut in. _At least we have each other to complain to._

_Too true._


	51. PA Chapter 11

Chapter 11

That afternoon while Andrew was with Carlisle, Clara went off to find Bella. She had been thinking and needed to talk to someone who would be likeliest to listen.

Bella was in the backyard, far from the house and Andrew's earshot. She heard Clara coming and got up to go to the human, but Clara shook her head and walked the distance herself.

"Something on your mind?"

"Yeah," Clara sighed. "Being human."

Bella laughed. "So I'm the best one to go to?"

"If those stories are true," Clara looked at her questioningly.

"Just about every word," Bella answered. "What's the problem, just to clarify?"

"Being human means being a target, in danger," Clara explained. "And even though I don't think Andrew's completely against the idea of me changing, he's not thrilled about it. And we haven't got to talk about it more than a word here and there. The longer it's put off, the more chance I'm just a weakness in the fight."

Bella was quiet. "You know, Andrew might not be immortal. We haven't figured it out yet."

"I didn't know," Clara answered quietly. "But what if he is and then I get old and die before you know for sure?"

Bella was very still. She was remembering all the angst this problem had caused her as a human. The memories were dim by way of images and senses, but the recollection of the pain was nearly the same.

"Clara, I think you need to talk to him before you ask anyone for any favors," Bella finally answered. "Now's the perfect opportunity." She gestured over her shoulder to the house.

Clara turned and saw Andrew standing on the back porch.

Clara waved and Andrew started over. "He always knows where to find me."

"Part of the Imprint, as we found out with Jake and Nessie," Bella said. "That's another thing to consider when you two talk. I'm going to go hunt with Edward." She suddenly gave Clara a warning look. "No powers."

"No powers," Clara promised. Bella disappeared in an instant and Andrew was there within the minute.

"That looked serious," he observed.

"It was," Clara half-smiled.

"Can I be in on the secret?"

"You were part of the secret."

"So I can't?" Andrew pretended to look crushed.

"You can," Clara giggled. She sobered when she thought of what was coming next. "We were… talking about Changing."

Andrew inhaled deeply. "You mean…?"

"Vampire changing," Clara clarified. "As in me changing into a vampire."

"I wondered when that was going to come up," Andrew admitted. "So you want to then."

"I want…" Clara thought about it. "To not be a danger risk to you. To be able to be with you without that threat looming over us."

"You aren't a danger risk."

"The Volturi—"

"Would have found another excuse."

"I mean in the fight. I'd be an easy target."

Andrew didn't have an answer for that.

Clara bit her lip. "The other two points would be the Imprint and Immorality thing."

"Huh?"

"What it'd do to our Imprint and whether you're immortal," Clara elaborated. "I know I'd love you no matter what type of creature I was, for the one. But if you wouldn't be able to be around with me forever, well I guess that's the deal breaker."

"You know I'd love you too," Andrew said seriously. Then he paused. "So if I'm not able to be around forever… you'll change to escape me?" he started to laugh.

"It's not funny," Clara shoved him lightly.

"I know," Andrew laughed more.

"Hmp." Clara turned her back on him, crossing her arms tightly.

"Aw c'mon, you don't' even know what I came out to tell you yet." Clara didn't respond. "Clar-raaaaaaa. It's completely on-topic, I swear."

He rolled his eyes when she still didn't say anything but continued. "Carlisle had been testing for signs of immortality on the DNA level ever since I was born. He's got so much information on it; its mind blowing. He took human, both types of werewolf and vampire DNA samples and compared all of them and only found two things that were the same in all but one and one thing in all of them."

Clara turned back a little. "So what does that mean?"

"It means he has the answer to our problem," Andrew laughed. "See, the thing that all of them have in common in layman's terms is the humanity. All of them have something human in them.

"And the other thing that was in all but one wasn't in the human samples."

Clara's eyes widened. "You don't mean—?"

"Immortality," Andrew nodded. "Those two things were the only common ground. He's already tested me. We found out a couple days ago…" He paused for dramatic effect. "_I'm immortal._"

"AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THIS SOONER?" Clara yelled before jumping into his arms and kissing him soundly.

Andrew looked stunned when she pulled back. "Uhhh…"

Clara laughed. "Who else knows?"

"Just the three of us," Andrew managed after a second. "I wanted to tell you first." He shook his head a couple times. "Warn me before doing that, will you?"

"Maybe," Clara smiled mischievously. "It's kind of funny."


	52. PA Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Carlisle was in the middle of calling the Denali's when he heard all the shouts downstairs. He surmised that Andrew had shared the big news. And that Nessie was slightly upset about not knowing sooner, but not too badly.

"Carlisle?" Eleazar said. "We'll be down by tomorrow."

"Thank you, my friend," Carlisle sighed in relief. "Thank you so much."

They said goodbye and Carlisle went to join the celebration.

The celebration froze solid when Carlisle entered the room. "Am I spoiling the party?"

"No," Andrew said. He looked at everyone. "Um? Is something the matter?"

The rest of the family looked at each other. Except Jacob, who wasn't sure of what was happening either.

"Did we miss something?" Jake asked. "Ness?"

"Um, well," Renesmee said. "I guess they thought that Clara was changing right away and that Carlisle came in to do it."

It was silent. Clara and Andrew hadn't even actually thought about _when._

"When would be the best time?" Bella asked, looking around at everyone.

No one was really sure.

Except for Jasper.

"It needs to be relatively soon," he said. "Just in case of newborn madness. There's been too many good cases lately," he shrugged. "Of course, my theories have been debunked before."

Again, no one was really sure.

Except Clara.

"I agree," she said quietly. Even if the newborn madness thing was invalid, Clara would rather be used to being a vampire than not when the fight came.

Every set of eyes was now looking at Carlisle.

Carlisle was thinking it over, his eyes watching his family that remained here. Edward, Bella, Jasper, Andrew… wait. One of the newest Cullen was missing.

"Where is Alyssa? And Shayne," he added as an afterthought.

Shayne appeared at the sound of his name. "What's going on? I thought some Cullen thing was going on and stayed out of the way."

Shayne was another thing no one was sure about.

"We need to find Alyssa," Edward said. "Family business."

"I'm on it," Shayne said eagerly. He ran out of the room.

Alyssa was sitting outside by the river, shaking her head and smiling. Shayne watched from a distance. When would she give him a chance? He had barely been able to talk to him without her looking like she wanted to rip his arm off.

If only she'd just listen to him without whatever was making her hate him…

He watched as she rolled her light eyes. Hers and the others had lightened a ton faster than the stories about yellow-eyes claimed. He wondered why briefly before hearing her speak.

"Better go find them." She froze when she saw Shayne about fifty yards away. "What?"

"Carlisle said there was family business you needed to be there for," Shayne said, somewhat nervously.

Alyssa's face softened slightly. She loved being considered part of this family since she couldn't have contact with her own right now. She was growing to love all of them. "Convenient. Thanks." She took off, Clueless Aussie at her heels.

She had been talking with Kendra. Her twin had established contact.

_Twin!_ Kendra had shouted mentally. They weren't totally connected this far apart. The closest comparison was the mental contact between Sam Uley and Jacob Black when they were in their wolf form, sharing what they chose instead of being like they were in the same pack, sharing senses and every thought.

Really, Alyssa wasn't sure which she liked better. This way was cool, but it felt like part of her brain was missing.

_Yeah? What do you need? _

_I don't know, Maksim and I are running again, another long haul, and I was bored. _

Alyssa had laughed in her head; _I guess I should have known. How is the search going anyway? _

_Great! We are closing in on him, The Stoic Russian is certain we will get him this time. _

_Is this the first time he's been sure? _ Alyssa had asked dubiously.

_Yes actually it is, and after this trip, I am inclined to believe his instincts, so how's The Clueless Aussie? _

Alyssa sighed _He seems to be getting better at the whole, stop talking before you get your head ripped off by the girl you are supposedly in love with. _

Kendra laughed. _Well that's something at least. _

_Yeah…well have fun with the Russian! AET signing out. _AET stood for 'anti-evil twin'. That was Alyssa and ET (evil twin) was Kendra. Though they had been known to switch subconsciously sometimes.

Alyssa reached the house. "Heya." She looked around. "What'd I miss?"

Clara filled her in.

"So I guess what we're supposed to be figuring out is when I should change."

Alyssa looked thoughtful. "When are the other vampires coming? Anyone non-vegetarian might have problems with a human in the house."

"We haven't heard from anyone as far as I know." Clara looked around for confirmation.

"That's right," Carlisle nodded. "No updates except that the Denali's will be here in the morning."

"Apparently Alyssa has one," Edward said dryly.

"I was getting there," Alyssa said. "They found Alistair and he said he'd consider it. And they're closing in on Makenna and Charles, Maksim is sure of it."

"Then soon," Jasper said. "Like I said."

"And I agreed," Clara said. "I think we just need to do it. Like, today," she added when no one said anything. She looked at Andrew.

Andrew looked apprehensive. He could sense that this is what she needed but also that it would cause massive changes… not just with her powers, but with something else.

At the same time…

"Andrew?" Clara pulled him out of trying to figure out what was bugging him. "What do you think?"

Andrew took a deep breath, tasting her ocean-mist scent. "I'm good with it. Whatever you need."

Nessie and Clara glanced at each other, as did Jacob and Andrew. The Imprints and the Wolves. The Imprints knew this was a standard, but totally sincere answer, the Wolves knew that they just wanted what their girls needed and could always feel it through the Imprint.

Clara nodded slowly. "Well… no time like the present. Time isn't going to change anything." She looked at Carlisle, who nodded.

Clara turned to Andrew quickly again, stun-kissing him for the second time.

"What happened to warning?" Andrew managed.

"It was never promised," Clara teased and then hugged him tightly.

Andrew held her, wondering about what would happen in three days. Then they followed Carlisle upstairs, hand in hand.

Alyssa looked slightly worried. People had told her that her face was expressive when she was human and the trait had stayed with her. She hadn't learned to school her facial features yet.

"What's the matter?" Shayne whispered so that the sound wouldn't go upstairs. He wasn't surprised when Alyssa shrugged slightly but otherwise ignored him.

The screams started at the same time.

Clara upstairs was trying to contain it but the sting of venom was horrible even for knowing about it.

_Alyssa_ wasn't even bothering.

Because _Kendra_ wasn't bothering.

"_NO! NO! AGHHH! MY ARM,_" Alyssa shrieked, clutching her shoulder. Her eyes were wild and unseeing.

She panted; taking in the scents around her on her tongue and in her nose seemed to bring her back. "NO! _Her_ arm. _Her_ face. KENDRA!"


	53. PA Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Alyssa," Shayne muttered again and again under his breath, desperate to get closer. But her new family was surrounding her.

"Edward? What's in her head?" Bella demanded shrilly.

"Kendra was attacked. She's feeling the same pain. We need to get her back here or wait for it to end," Edward said. He could almost feel the pain the newborn did. He looked sharply at Shayne. "Keep your thoughts down if you want me to figure out how to get her back here."

Shayne tried desperately to wipe his mind clean but that wasn't something he was good at.

"Oh for the love of all that's holy," Edward muttered. He moved aside. "Come on, then. But I'm warning you—"

"I know, I know," Shayne raced over to Alyssa through the Cullens. She had collapsed on the floor, still staring and whimpering unintelligible words. He knelt down and moved her, holding her like she was an infant and moved her dark hair from her pale face.

"It isn't you, it isn't you," Shayne whispered. "Come back to yourself. It isn't you…"

Suddenly Alyssa went limp, like she had fainted. But vampires don't faint.

"What happened?" Shayne said frantically.

"Something with Kendra," Edward said. "Alyssa can still hear. She's trying to get back to her own mind."

For the next hour Shayne just stayed there, holding the stubborn girl and talking to her. The Cullens eventually backed off and just stayed in close rooms. They also took turns going upstairs and trying to get Andrew to come down.

Alyssa finally moved. Shayne breathed a great sigh of relief.

Alyssa stiffened. She had realized who was there though her eyes were still seeing Kendra's blackness. Whose chest her head was resting on. Whose arms were holding her like she was helpless.

"Shayne?" Alyssa said hesitantly.

Shayne didn't bother denying it. "Yes." Here came the ice…

"What's that screaming?"

The question caught him off guard. "That's Clara. It's not as loud as you think. Can you see?"

"No." Alyssa frowned. "I guess I get my answer about what it'd be like to be blind."

"What happened?"

"I don't know," Alyssa suddenly sounded scared, like a small girl afraid to go into a dark room in case of a witch under the bed.

"It's okay," Shayne said hurriedly, "It wasn't you."

"But it was," Alyssa said as though it made all the sense in the world.

"It wasn't," Shayne said firmly. "It's going to be all right. She's safe." _You're safe._

All the Cullens but the hybrid and his human were back in the room. Shayne didn't even glance at them until Carlisle came over.

"Alyssa?"

"Carlisle," Alyssa breathed, relieved. "Who else is here?" She sniffed, trying to figure it out.

"Can you differentiate the scents?" Carlisle asked. "How far can you hear and what is the back of your right hand touching?"

"Don't overwhelm—" Shayne began.

"It's okay," Alyssa interrupted. "There's obviously you and Shayne. Um… Edward and Bella. Mr. and Mrs. Black. And Jasper?" Alyssa asked a little uncertainly. "You're all here?"

"We are," Carlisle confirmed. "Except for Clara and Andrew."

"They're up and right," Alyssa said. "I can hear… wind outside. Not a lot. And… I think that's silk? Oh!" Her eyes slid back into focus and she blinked.

_Kendra?_ Alyssa thought, trying to establish contact as she took in where she was.

_Whoa… What happened?_

_Kendra! _Alyssa exclaimed, extraordinarily relieved. _Are you all right?_

_I think so… let me get back to you on that when I figured out what happened…_

"Um," Alyssa said… "Hi, everyone…"

"'Hi everyone'? That's the best we get?" Jacob asked jokingly.

"You could get a punch in the kidney, too," Alyssa said, recovering some sarcasm. "But I didn't think you'd consider that very thoughtful."

"Touché."

"She's all right," Carlisle chuckled. "I'm going to go check on Andrew." With that he was gone.

Alyssa suddenly realized she hadn't protested at her position yet. Part of her didn't want to, but she leapt up anyway, startling Shayne. "How long has it been?" She looked for a clock, forgetting the only one was on the microwave in this room until the miniscule movement of the numbers changing caught her attention. "An hour?"

"Just about," Bella said. "It's almost morning."

"What happened?" Renesmee asked anxiously.

"I'm waiting for Kendra to get back to me," Alyssa said, biting her lip. "She's… talking to Maksim, I think."

It was silent for a while.

"Your eyes are too dark," Jasper suddenly said. "You need to hunt."

At the word _hunt_ Alyssa's throat burned. "Please," she said.

Somehow she ended up going with Jasper, Edward and Shayne. How did that _happen?_

When she got back there were a bunch of new scents to deal with.

The Denali's were here.

And so were the Amazons, which meant that Esme and Paul were back. After a lot of introductions and explanations Alyssa was suddenly swept up into preparations for guests that had somehow been ignored until just now. Good thing no one needed to hunt just yet…


	54. PA Chapter 14

Chapter 14

_Kendra,_ Alyssa complained a day and a half later. _I'm bored. Where are you?_

_Um, somewhere in Europe._

_Nice. How's Stoic?_

_Better than usual. How's Clueless?_

_Better than usual. But right now we're all just hanging and it appears that patience is a learned trait. Clara still has another day to go and Andrew's edgy and won't leave her side._

_Typical_, Kendra giggled._ Ah well. How many vamps are there?_

_Seventeen including me,_ Alyssa said._ The Denalis, Cullens, Amazons and Mary the American Nomad. Then they're learning to fight with wolves. It's interesting but you know me._

_That I do. You're hiding something._

_Am not._

_You're a sucky liar._

_Pun intended, I see._

_Don't distract. I'm going to find out eventually._

_No clue,_ Alyssa lied again. _I need something to do…_

_We could try starting a book about two close friends suddenly turned vampire,_ Kendra suggested dryly.

_Ha ha. You know, writing isn't a bad idea. I just need inspiration that's not vampire related._

_Good luck with that. Maybe a love story? _Kendra suggested slyly. _AH-HA! Gotcha!_

The 'suggestion' had opened up Alyssa's thing with Shayne. Her growing thing ever since she had come out of Kendra's blackness in his arms.

_Twin why didn't you tell me?_

Alyssa sulked but kept quiet.

_Aww this is romantic. Seriously, why didn't you tell me?_

_I don't know… wait… what's that?_

She had caught a flicker of Maksim through Kendra's eyes.

_A Russian vampire, what else? All vampires are beautiful._

_I think we're going to have a lot of information to exchange. Sima?_

_It's a valid Russian nickname._

_This is a lot easier when we're closer._

_Yeah, I know._

It was quiet.

_Uh-oh, Maksim looks annoyed about something._

_Have fun with that._

_Have fun with Shayne._

_Shut up._

**Hey everyone! I know this is a short chapter but I'd really like your opinions on how the story is so far so just hit that button with "review" on it because it does something crazy… it lets you write me a message to tell me what's in your heads! **** You know you want to!**

**~Assyla Silver~**


	55. PA Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"C'mon, Black," a voice said, snapping Andrew out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"You're coming with me," Alyssa said.

"I don't want to," Andrew said.

"Cute, you think you have a choice. C'mon you haven't eaten in two days."

"I don't want food."

Alyssa rolled her eyes and tugged at the straps of the mini backpack she was wearing. "Vaughan!"

Christian appeared at the door. "He's really refusing food? Dang."

Andrew had no clue how they did it, but he was out of the house. Mostly.

He was still feeling an echo of the pain that Clara was in.

"This is so not cool guys. Let go of my arms."

"Not a chance," Alyssa said. "We're getting food in you. More vampires are supposed to arrive tomorrow and then she's supposed to be done changing. And all the excitement plus you having an empty stomach equals not good."

Andrew grumbled but let them get him into town.

The town had grown since the last time the Cullens had been here. None of the others could come in because they might be recognized, but no one knew these three teenagers.

"Where's the diner?" Alyssa asked.

Andrew kept his mouth shut.

"That way," Christian said, pointing with a free hand.

Andrew griped some more.

"Hey is that an In-n-Out? I thought that was only a California restaurant."

That's what Andrew thought too. Weird.

"Okay, Christian. Plan A or B?"

"Start with Plan B," Christian said.

"What's plan B?" Andrew asked cautiously. "And does it involve something that will hurt Andrew?"

"Plan B is asking Andrew nicely to eat something," Alyssa informed him.

"I'm not hungry." Andrew just wanted to get back to the house, not talk to anyone and get back to Clara. She was supposed to end the change soon. It was hurting her so much.

"All right, Plan A, then," Alyssa said happily.

Uh-oh.

"Can we try Plan C?" Christian asked. "I've always wanted to know if it worked."

"No, the order was B, A, C. So you'll probably get to try it."

Andrew was freaking confused.

"Uh, hello? Guy you guys are frog-marching and plotting against."

"Plan A!" Alyssa sing-songed.

Andrew thought he would regret not trying Plan B.

He was right.

They marched him right back into the forest and Alyssa pulled something out of her bag.

Andrew smelled the familiar combination of cotton mesh, polyethylene and adhesive and _really really really really really really really _regretted not trying Plan B.

"_Who the heck gave you duct tape?"_

Again the Moon Wolf and vampire girl overpowered him and Andrew couldn't figure out how he ended up duct taped securely to a tree.

"See, Christian? _That's_ how you immobilize someone with duct tape someone properly. Now we just have to reinforce it." Alyssa used up the rest of the industrial sized roll and then pulled out a second roll and used all of that.

"Your problem was, the time you tried at school, that you didn't get all the high-risk areas."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going to go get the rest of the plan."

"Mmhmm."

Andrew couldn't help but feel irked and amused as Alyssa smirked at him. "You two just got lucky."

"Nope. We're skilled."

"So why was this Plan A if it was second?"

"It was the first I thought of."

"Of course," Andrew rolled his eyes. "What was Plan C?"

"None of your business," Alyssa smiled an angelic smile Andrew didn't buy for a minute.

"Hey guys." Christian was carrying a HUGE bag with amazing hamburger, French fry, salty goodness smells pouring out from it.

"That was fast," Alyssa said.

"Yeah. Adam's been teaching me stuff."

They looked at Andrew at the same time.

"You just might get to use Plan C, Christian. He's looking stubborn."

Andrew frowned. "You of little faith. I'm kind of duct taped to a tree." Yeah, he wanted the food.

"You're going to eat?"

"If that's how I get home."

Alyssa removed some key pieces of duct tape and Andrew was able to free one arm. Christian placed a triple decked burger in it immediately. It was gone in less than ten seconds.

This continued until the whole bag was emptied between the guys. Christian's burgers were just less well cooked than Andrew's.

"Um question," Andrew finally asked after the bag was empty. "Why didn't you just get the food and let me eat back home?" He was still upset that he was this far from Clara right now.

"That's no fun," Alyssa pouted.

That figured. After his friend freed him, Andrew risked another question.

"What was Plan C? And who came up with it?"

Alyssa and Christian started laughing uncontrollably.

Andrew opened Alyssa's backpack, which was on the ground.

"A horse tranquilizer?"

The two laughed harder.

"You thought that'd work?"

"Of course not," Alyssa wheezed.

"I thought it might," Christian choked out.

"You two are insane."

But he had to admit it.

It was funny. 

**REVIEW! This book only has a few more chapters until the very last part!**


	56. PA Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Andrew collapsed on the way home.

"Andrew!"

He didn't hear his name called. He was burning. So hot. His heart, his heart… His heart…

Stopped.

Steel cables were severed.

His soul felt like it was being torn out.

"NO!" Andrew yelled. He leapt up. Something was horribly wrong. He felt ice cold and his vision was amplified.

"Holy sh—" Christian said. But Andrew didn't hear him. He was running at vampire speed back home. Desperate vampire speed.

Every head turned when Andrew crashed through the front door and ran through the house. It was his scent but there was no heart beat.

He didn't hear Carlisle ran after him, cutting his conversation with Carmen.

_CLARA._

Everyone heard what happened next.

Clara had managed to get under control but the heat got hotter. The pain got stronger. She started to scream as her heart beat so fast she was sure it was going to explode—

Then nothing.

Clara opened her eyes.

Andrew caught the crimson gaze immediately. He felt his own heart restart slowly.

_Ka—thump. Ka—thump._

He still felt dead.

The Imprint had broken, he was sure of it.

He watched the new Clara's eyes dart around, saw her stand far faster than human eyes could follow. Saw her take in her first breath of air; listen to the first new sounds.

Then their eyes met for the billionth time and the first.

Clara's mouth opened slightly, just a small parting of the lips, and her eyes widened, making her endearingly child-like.

They felt it at the same time. Another shift in the universe.

The Imprint hadn't been broken… entirely.

It had just changed.

They moved to each other at the same time, trying not to startle each other.

They touched hands and felt a shock of electricity.

"Clara." "Andrew." They whispered the others name at the same time.

It was as though the moment was being frozen in eternity. The instant that the Werewolf Imprint/human love changed to pure, Vampiric first love.

And now it would always stay that way.

**PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! I love hearing from you!**


	57. PA Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Alyssa watched the two together the rest of the day and the next day, wistfully. She contacted Kendra and projected every detail of the event. She learned that the two were coming back the next day, along with some other things. She passed the news to Esme quietly and Esme made arrangements to meet Kendra, Maksim, Makenna and Charles at the airport.

The first surprise was that Maksim's eyes were gold.

The second was seeing Maksim just as stony as ever. More so, even. Then she saw the shift in Kendra's memory and realized what had happened. Maksim was afraid to let anyone but Kendra see a slightly emotional side of him.

The girls felt it the instant they were close enough to be in one mind again (about 3000 miles away, so they could basically be cross-country and still be in that "mindset") and instantly felt like she had her whole brain again.

When they actually saw each other at the car there was a LOT of shrieking and hugging. They sat together in the car but Maksim sat a few away seats from them, making Kendra uncomfortable.

_So Max-y isn't being very warm. Did something happen._

_DO NOT call him that. EVER. And I don't know… it's his shield I guess, the apathy._

_It makes sense. I can't believe that Alice said if you went on the trip you'd find the man of your dreams and didn't mention it was Maksim._

_Can't you?_

…_you're right, I can._

_I'm always right._

_Nope, that'd be me._

_Not this again. We're basically the same brain now so there's little difference._

_Too true._

They reached the house and were greeted by more vampires than they had left. As well as Christian and Adam, who decided they'd risk the blood suckers.

Alice and Emmett were back, which meant that Stefan, Vladimir, Amun, Kebi, Benjamin and Tia were there.

Everyone was all throughout the house. Eventually Kendra, Maksim and Alyssa found themselves in the front room where Edward was teaching Bella to play piano.

"Maksim?" Shayne asked loudly. "Why are your eyes gold?"

_Why not?_ Alyssa thought, annoyed. One of the big reasons she didn't let herself totally fall for the Australian was his red eyes.

_You'd think he'd try,_ Kendra agreed with Alyssa's emotions. _You two being all lovey-dovey and all._

_WE ARE NOT. I DON'T LOVE HIM._

_Sure, sure._

It was awkward as Maksim ignored Shayne and started talking to Kendra. The two slipped away a short while later.

Alyssa saw Clara and Andrew talking to Jasper and Alice as she started out the front door. "I'll see you guys later."

"Are you okay?" Clara asked.

"Yeah," Alyssa lied.

"Liar."

"How did you—"

"I'm experimenting with my power," Clara smiled.

Alyssa shook her head. "I swear I forgot you were gifted. Anyway, I'll talk to you later."

"I'm holding you to that."

"Jasper do you really have a motorcycle?" Alyssa asked, thinking she wanted to try something new.

"Yes," Jasper nodded. "The keys are the ones with a J on it. On the hook in the garage."

"Thanks."

Alyssa was on the road in three minutes.

She loved not having a helmet as she road and feeling totally secure. There was still adrenaline but no worry about dying. She caught sight of herself on something reflective and was still as surprised as she had been the first time she'd seen herself.

Her brown hair had lost its frizz and favored the curls she loved, except making them look like Alyssa had jumped right out of Photoshop. Really she could just barely see her old self anymore, which she didn't totally mind. She still felt like herself. And she could see some traces of her old face. No freckles anymore, which she did miss, but her eyes and lips were nearly the same, just differently colored. Light amber and paler pink.

_Where am I going? _Alyssa wondered. She realized she was heading for the beach and made the bike go faster.

Kendra wasn't answering her thoughts, realizing Alyssa needed some privacy.

Alyssa dismounted a short ways away from the water, not parking in the sand obviously. She found that she was alone on the beach as it was oddly cold for summer, even here in Washington. She left her jeans on the beach and dived into the surf.

The waves bounced her up and down as she let herself be pulled out. She loved the beach. Even the days underwater hadn't made her hate saltwater. How could anyone hate the beach?

She heard something through the water and ducked under, searching through the murk that really didn't harm her sight.

Not seeing anything, Alyssa closed her eyes and let the waves roll around her again, seemingly relaxed but really ready to flee.

Which she did when something came up behind her head.

She flipped around like the high school swimmer she used to be, used the threat as a wall to push off of and practically flew like a missile onto the beach.

She crouched felinely on the sand, ready to attack, and faced the water.

The threat jumped out of the water and they were wrestling, turning over and over and turning into a big sandball.

Alyssa growled threateningly and disentangled herself from the attacker and went to actual punches and well-aimed kicks.

They eventually dodged a blow and tackled again, now effectively pinning Alyssa down and she cursed the fading newborn strength. Wasn't it supposed to last longer?

_Kendra!_

_I'm coming!_

"Don't call her," the voice warned.

"SHAYNE!" Alyssa squirmed to get out from under him. "LET ME UP!"

"You're just going to run again," Shayne said, some emotion making his voice thick.

Alyssa scowled but didn't disagree. "Let. Me. Up."

"Why did you leave?"

"Because I wanted to and I'm old enough to do that kind of thing," Alyssa snarled.

"How old are you?" Shayne suddenly asked.

"_Old enough._ I swear, Aussie, if you don't let me up you're going to regret it."

_Twin, Maksim's being difficult._

_You're fighting with him? What is it with these guys and fighting us!_

_I don't know. I'm trying to—. Ohhhh he's going to regret that._

Alyssa hissed but Shayne didn't even flinch. "I don't understand you."

"And you never will!"

He continued like she hadn't spoken. "I thought we had something after Kendra's incident but I can't tell. You're hot and you're cold."

"You did _nawt_ just quote Katy Perry."

"Cheesy but accurate."

"Leave me alone," Alyssa growled. "Let me up. Let me go on with my life without this confusion," Alyssa groaned.

"What confusion?" Shayne jumped on the first open thing she'd told him.

"You, you weirdo!" Alyssa snapped. "You're too easy to like and I don't want to go there again. LET ME UP."

"Again?"

"LET ME UP!"

Shayne shook his head. "You're just as scared to love as Maksim was."

"LET—"

Shayne cut off the words by pressing his lips to hers.

_Whoa._

When they broke apart, Shayne stood slowly, obviously giving her a choice. Suddenly he tunred around.

"Shayne?" Alyssa asked, not understanding.

"Um, when you went for a swim you…"

"AGH!" Alyssa found her jeans and pulled them on quickly. "Okay," she breathed, calming herself.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Alyssa said, smiling. "Come on."

**CLICK THAT BUTTON WITH THE WORD "REVIEW"!**


	58. PA Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The rest of the vampires came within the next two weeks, which were spent going over and over battle plans and learning to trust each other.

Sometime during those days Adam disappeared with Christian again, saying he was going to teach Christian to fight away from their natural enemies. He had seemed distracted while claiming so and Edward had been nowhere near to confirm anything he may have been thinking.

Andrew was looking for Jasper. He had just finished an all-nighter with Carlisle and thought he had figured out how to go full vampire at will, even just for a short burst of time.

"Jazz!"

Jasper looked up from his detailed map of Washington, surprised at Andrew's excited emotions. "Yes?"

"I wanted to talk to you about fighting," Andrew said, really pumped. "I think that I can go vamp at will now and I want to learn how to fight like one."

"Hey! Don't forget me!"

_Ah, crap_, Andrew thought. "You can control them, Clara."

Clara's red eyes looked annoyed. "It's only working on five beings max right now at a hundred foot range."

"They're still your puppets."

"What if they have a new vampire that's like Bella?" She looked at Jasper. "You have to know I'm right."

"She is," Jasper stopped Andrew's negative emotions in their tracks. "Don't you want to sleep, though?"

"How could I possibly sleep? Don't even think about it!"

"Fine," Jasper said dismissively. "Don't blame me if you get hurt."

"What's this about fighting?" Alyssa appeared next to Clara.

"Not you, too," Andrew groaned.

"Screw you," Alyssa retorted. "Maksim is teaching Kendra and Shayne doesn't know enough to teach me."

That boy appeared right then. "It's true."

"I heard fighting," Kendra popped up, holding Maksim's hand. "I need an opponent I'm not afraid to hurt."

Jasper shrugged. "I can teach all of you and I believe Maksim can as well. Shall we go into the yard?"

Bella and Edward were already back there, along with Garret and Emmett, who were betting on who could jump farthest.

Jasper faced the group that was loosely clumped together. _Edward? Want to help?_ He felt amusement from his brother as Edward read what was in his head and was sure he'd go along with it.

Andrew was trying to figure out why he was suddenly okay with Clara fighting. He suspected that Jasper had something to do with it because Clara's soul touch was noticeable.

Then he was racing to protect Clara from a pouncing Jasper, calling up his vampire.

Man that sounded cheesy. Calling up his vampire.

No, focus.

Their bodies collided, sounding like rocks smashing together and they hit the ground, leaving a dent in the damp dirt.

Then suddenly, Jasper had his knee on Andrew's chest and hands around his throat.

"Not fast enough." Jasper got up and faced the shocked group, who had skittered back and took up defensive crouches. "Let's see if you all are."

He lunged for Clara again, going easy.

_You don't want to attack me. You're going to stand and back off. Now._

Jasper did so, totally willingly.

Clara let go of her hold and Jasper shook off the puppet strings.

"See, you automatically resort to your gift. Learn to fight without it. Bella," he called. Bella shielded him. "Thank you."

Alyssa, Kendra, Shayne and Maksim were in a group, the twins together.

Maksim went off to watch with Bella and Edward, knowing he knew how to fight. "Shayne, over here. You know more than them. You're just a bad teacher."

That left Kendra and Alyssa alone, crouched and tense.

Jasper began advancing.

_Straight on._

_Two way attack._

The girls moved together, taking the offensive. Kendra ran at Jasper, jumped and twisted in the air so that she landed behind him and was running at him from that side.

Edward watched the scene fold out in shock. Jasper was having difficulty with the twins. _Difficulty. _They were too synchronized to handle, too slippery to get a hold of since they practically had four eyes (that was an interesting thing to watch through their minds, which was practically one), and weren't afraid to get dirty or hurt Jasper.

They took him down in a minute. Jasper was on his knees, a twin on either side of him, one with his head in their hands and another with their teeth at his throat.

"Whoa," Jasper said uncharacteristically.

"You two can back off now," Edward called after a tense moment. The twins shook off their attack-mode and took a few steps back, coming back round together.

_That was freaking awesome,_ they thought together.

"Hey! We want to spar," a new voice yelled.

All the vampires turned.

Clara's lips tightened and Andrew wondered why. It was only Faith and Amy.

"Sure," Jasper agreed civically. He felt some sort of vengeance in Amy, but he reasoned that he and the others could contain them. "Any volunteers?"

"I will," Clara said. _Supernaturals can defend themselves,_ Clara thought spitefully. _I'll show her._ "Amy?"

"Of course," Amy smiled innocently.

The two began to circle.

Andrew whispered to the twins, "do you two know what's going on?" they looked nervous and ready to jump in.

"Yeah," Alyssa whispered back.

"Now isn't the time for a catch-up session," Kendra added, eyes on the vampire and werewolf.

Andrew looked at Jasper and Edward. They looked worried beneath their schooled expressions, too.

What the heck had he missed?

Clara lunged at Amy, who phased on the spot.

She wasn't going to kill her… just break her neck.

Edward heard that part but wasn't too concerned until they _really_ started to go. Clara was powered by anger and thoughts of her mate and Amy by pure, unadulterated loathing.

Then there was the first cracking of bone.

_Dang it! Just her leg,_ Clara's mind registered somewhere. She jumped back into it, teeth bared.

The teeth made everyone. Until then Clara's mouth had been closed tight.

Shayne, Faith, Andrew, Bella, Edward, Jasper, Maksim and the twins jumped in. Edward, Jasper and Maksim restrained Amy. Shayne and Bella got Faith. Andrew, Kendra and Alyssa got Clara.

Amy's eyes were shooting daggers at Clara as she tore away from the vampires and ran into the forest, refusing to turn back into human form. Faith followed.

"What was that?" Andrew demanded.

"A grudge match," Edward said when Clara didn't respond.

"Explain, someone," Andrew said, rubbing his temples.

Clara waved at the twins to do it. They did so with their customary ping-pong words.

At the end of it Andrew didn't say anything, just shook his head and led Clara into the house.

The others looked at each other.

"Can we continue sparring?" Alyssa and Kendra asked Jasper bluntly.

"Go right ahead," Jasper said.

The girls looked at Shayne and Maksim. They reluctantly agreed to spar and the killing games continued.


	59. PA Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"The moon wolves are back!" Clara yelled the next day, seeing a van and smelling a familiar scent.

The core group ran to the front lawn. And froze.

The Moon wolves clambered out of the van. First Christian, then Adam, then Emmi.

Wait.

"EMMI?" Kendra and Alyssa yelped.

"Hey," Emmi said peppily. "Guess what!"

"You're a werewolf," Andrew said flatly.

"YEP!" Emmi laughed. "This is great!"

This was wrong.

"You're excited about this?" Clara asked. She looked between Adam and Emmi.

Adam explained. "Um, female Children of the Moon are different. They handle the senses well and are excited about it for the first few weeks."

"Few weeks?"

"Um, well for her it will be a few days."

"Until the full moon," Kendra realized.

"Great," Alyssa said.

"Um," Adam cleared his throat. "Another thing about the females is that they can reproduce."

It took a second and then the _girls_ got it.

"Noooooo," they all groaned together.

"PLEASE tell me that it won't be as bad as you two usually are," Clara pleaded.

Adam muttered something.

"WHAT?" Alyssa and Kendra screeched.

Andrew spoke for the first time. "You didn't just say what I think you said."

"It's not as bad as you think," Emmi intervened.

"Not as bad," Andrew repeated.

"Em-mi," Kendra said loudly. "You're going to have freaking double PMS."

"Normal AND Pre-Moon Syndrome," Alyssa exclaimed.

"Not so," Adam said. "It will be on the same day, the day of the full moon. Both of them…"

"That's not very comforting," Clara said bluntly. "So basically Emmi's going to be a constantly exploding bomb every month."

Neither Emmi or Adam could deny that.

Alyssa finally broke the silence. "Well _I_ for one am glad that we don't have to hide from you anymore, Em."

"Welcome to Washington," Kendra smiled. "Want to go catch up inside?"

"Actually we have something we need to talk about," Emmi said. "Moon stuff," she shrugged. "We'll be back in a few hours."

"All right," Andrew said before anyone could try and protest. The look on Adam's face said it was important. "We'll catch you later."

The Moon Wolves headed off into the trees.


	60. PA Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The three found a secluded mountainside and Adam pulled out the book containing Moon Wolf history.

"This," he explained to Emmi, "holds true werewolf history. It's all records of major events. Well, it was written in when major events occurred. We started it just after the vampires began to hunt us."

He began to read aloud.

_This recording has been started to protect the story of our kind. Our numbers are dwindling. We must not forget. If we forget, a new generation of wolf men may rise and know not of what they are. If ever the drinkers of life were to extinguish our light, our legacy will live on._

_The first wolf man was __Seán…_

Adam read, eventually his words all came from memory as he showed the young wolves pictures depicting their history. There were wars and seasons of prosperity. Times the numbers went from two to two hundred.

The last record written was that of a female named Loba. She wrote very little.

_I am passing this onto the one called Adam. I am to avenge my mate, my Vilkas. I will not return. I will bring down the drinker of life that took his breath and then I shall end it._

Adam looked at the two, who were full of awe.

"This goes back to the beginning. We are going to ensure it keeps going. We are going to have to use the spell I read to you during the fight. But first we will need to call the others. Understand?"

Both nodded.

Adam produced pens. "I have already decided what I am to write. You two think on it."

Christian watched Adam write. What could he say to contribute to that history?

Emmi was already sure of herself.

This is what they added.

_The greatest war against the kings of the drinkers of life is about to begin. We have partnered with shape shifting werewolves and gold eyed drinkers of life who have secured loyalties with others of their kind._

_I, Adam, first son of Séan. Vow to protect my species and my mate. If we do not survive with breath in our lungs, our legacy will live on._

_I'm Christian, Adam's student. I've only gone through a couple changes but despite that I'm going to use everything in me to make sure we survive one way or another._

_I am Emmi, mate of Adam. Changes are on the horizon and tension is in the air. I can feel it even though it doesn't make me crazy like it does to Adam and Christian. The war with the rulers of vampires is about to begin._

_Another change may be coming, too, if we live. Though I am not sure yet, there may be another First yet to come in our history._

It was late when they finally got back to the Cullen's. They had had to call the other wolves, clichély chanting mantras and casting spells. Hey where else would humans get the idea? Adam hoped the others would come despite the vampires.

There were so many there. So many drinkers of life. It was unnatural to Adam. Christian and Emmi weren't as old as he so they didn't feel the instinct so strongly.

Or was it an instinct? Adam wasn't sure anymore. He wiped his mind as Emmi tugged him indoors by the hand.

Alyssa was sitting by Shane and they were talking to Garrett and Kate. Kendra wasn't anywhere to be seen. Neither was Clara. Maksim and Andrew were talking, trying to figure out where their partners were.

The other vampires were engaged in various activities. Adam and Emmi started talking to two called Stefan and Vladimir. They were odd to say the least. The conversation ended quickly.

Adam found a paper and scribbled a note to Emmi.

_How can you stand being around so many so easily?_

Emmi wrote back without hesitation. _They've been my friends for years, Kendra and Alyssa. So has Andrew. And Clara's a dear friend, too. Why would I change because they did?_

Adam nodded and pocketed the note.

He had much to think on.

**Heya, I know it was a short chapter again, sorry about that. I've had a lot to do lately with other non-fanfiction stories and school finals. I won't stop until the story is finished, though, promise!**

**Assyla**


	61. PA Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Clara?" Alyssa came up to her. "Have you seen Shayne?"

Clara shook her head. "Do you want me to look for him? Wait, where's Kendra?"

"Um... somewhere in the forest alone. She felt too crowded and even left Maksim here. _Can_ you find Shayne?"

Clara raised her eyebrows at Alyssa's tone of surprise. "Yeah, I can. I've found out I can do all sotrs of things with my power magnified so much. It's like having a ton of talents. The only thing I can't do anymore is send words instead of impressions to Andrew's soul."

"Because the Imprint broke?"

"I think so," Clara said vaguely. She wasn't sure how she felt about that yet. "Let me see…"

Clara reached out and reveled in the many souls in the house. The vegetarian vampires were lighter in 'color' than red-eyed vampires. But no one had a truly sickening soul like Jane of the Voltuiri had. No one here was that heartless and evil.

Then she felt something shift, Alice's soul was reaching out into the universe, past different barriers that Clara couldn't touch.

"Alice is seeing something," Clara said. "it isn't good."

The two hurried to the general hang out, which was the kitchen.

Clara felt Alyssa touch Kendra mentally, sending a message and they joined in their fashion as Maksim asked why Alice was staring at him so strangely.

Clara looked at everyone. She saw Andrew and went over to him, feeling slightly better even though the turmoil Alice was in was making her uneasy. Edward was worried too.

"What happened, Alice?" Alyssa asked.

"Kendra…she…I-I had a vision of the fight." Alice said quietly, "Kendra…she…won't live through it." Alice hesitated like there was more.

"What aren't you telling me?" Maksim demanded. "It sounds like there is more."

"The only thing I'm not telling you is _how_ she di-doesn't make it." Alice said quietly.

"Then she won't be fighting, she won't be where you see her. Will that change the vision?" Maksim asked. Clara was shocked at the desperation in his voice. She was even more shocked when she felt Alyssa force Kendra out of their connection. She hadn't realized they could do that.

"That would change it," Alice said, scanning the future. "Some."

"What if she wasn't in the state?" Maksim tossed out.

"She'd be hunted."

"What if she was with us?" a shape shifter suggested suddenly. It was Rowan Garwood, Leah and Tad's son, Faith's lesser known brother.

Alice looked. Everyone held their breath, tense.

"She lives."

"That settles it then," Alyssa said firmly. Maksim nodded.

Clara looked at Andrew. "She isn't going to like this."

"Not at all," Andrew agreed. "Big deal. _She isn't going to die._"

"Here she comes," Alyssa said, looking at the back door.

Kendra appeared not two seconds later. "I won't stay here," she nearly growled.

Edward looked at her parentally. "You won't be going to the fight that is for sure." He then looked at Bella, remembering similar conversations.

"You're part of our family," Carlisle said firmly. "We cannot risk your life like that."

"How are you going to make me stay here?" Kendra challenged

"The younger wolves will be under strict orders to hold down the fort here, you will simply be helping them." Jacob said from his corner with Rensemsee, nodding towards the group of preteen wolves against a wall, one of which had been Rowan.

"I can't just sit idly by while everyone I care about goes out to face the Volturi!" Kendracried, "Alice, you said your visions were subjective, that they change, couldn't the vision be a mistake?"

Alice shook her head and explained how they had gone through different combinations of choices and only this one allowed her, Kendra, to live.

Clara watched as Kendra hesitated for a second, looked at the floor, and then ran upstairs in a blur.

Alyssa moved to follow but Maksim held her back and went instead.

Jasper looked at Alyssa in surprise just then. Then Alyssa ran outside.

Clara followed, then Andrew, then Jasper.

Clara caught up to Alyssa. "Liss, did you still want me to find Shayne?"

Alyssa nodded wordlessly.

Clara closed her eyes and reached out. She could feel every soul for miles, though in this state she couldn't control or influence anyone, only sense.

"He's… hunting. Beyond the mountains. Shall I fetch him?" Clara added the last part uncertainly.

"I don't care," Alyssa said expressionlessly.

"Get him," Jasper said. "You too, Andrew."

"Why?" Andrew asked, surprised.

Jasper gave him a _look_.

"I'm going, I'm going."

The two ran through the forest.

"What was that about?" Andrew asked Clara.

"No idea. Jasper seemed surprised at her inside, though," Clara said. "I can touch souls, not read minds."

"It's hard to tell the difference sometimes."

"For you," Clara laughed. "This way…"

It took them ten minutes more to track Shayne down.

"Shayne?" Clara called from about a hundred yards away.

Shayne looked over and beneath his long, surfer blonde hair that was always in his face a bit, Clara saw—

"Sunglasses?" Andrew said.

Shayne shrugged.

"Why?" Andrew asked.

Another shrug.

Clara frowned and reached out, intending to Influence Shayne and have him explain. Usually he gave explanations or at least more than gestures.

Then she stopped.

"Oh my… Shayne…"

"I guess the cat is out of the bag," Shayne sighed heavily. He slipped his glasses off to reveal a slightly different face than when he left the house.

Pale gold eyes stared at Clara and Andrew.

"How'd they change so fast?" Clara whispered.

"He was hungry. That makes it faster," Andrew said, remember Carlisle's theories from years of research. "You must have drank a lot."

"It was an accident at first," Shayne admitted. "Then not so much."

Clara used her Influence when Shayne faltered and made him get it off his chest.

"Alyssa's been giving me these… looks lately. These sad, torn looks that I couldn't stand but I knew where they were coming from. She's said she loves me but she hated that I was one of the red-eyes. Wait a minute… Clara!"

"Sorry. You know you feel better."

"Just let me surprise her," Shayne groaned and slid the glasses back on. He started running back home and was soon out of sight.

"There's so much melodrama lately," Andrew said. "I almost forget we're going to war soon."


	62. PA Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"Pssst, Andrew," Clara shook him. "Wake up! They're gone." How he slept so hard was beyond Clara. Then again, it was one in the morning. But they had a long trip ahead.

Andrew punched out at thin air. "HUH?"

Clara shook her head and then shook Andrew again. He kicked an invisible enemy.

Clara looked over her shoulder at Seth Clearwater. He took the rather large bucket of rather cold water he was holding and poured it out on Andrew.

"AGH!"

"Good, you're awake," Clara said happily. "It's time to go!"

Andrew looked blank. Then it dawned on him. "Oh!"

"Yeah, so hurry up," Seth joked. "We don't have all eternity. Oh wait…"

Andrew shook his head and then jumped when Clara threw a towel over his head. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Five minutes later Clara, Andrew, Seth, Rowan and JJ were in a huge moving truck and headed south.

"So how is this working?" JJ asked when they got close to their destination.

"My power," Clara said simply. "Rowan you have the lists, right?"

"Sure do."

"Pass everyone a copy, then," Clara said happily. "Turn here, Seth."

Seth pulled up in front of a one story house. "Who lived here? I can't tell the difference in their scents.

"Alyssa," Clara answered. She went up to the house and rang the bell, glad it was twilight because of her skin.

A tall woman answered. "Yes?"

Clara felt horrible as she Influenced Ms. Spoor, Alyssa's mom. "This letter," she gave the lady and envelope, "is from Alyssa. She's perfectly fine, everything is explained in there. But she needs her stuff but couldn't come down. I was hoping we could take it to her?" when Ms. Spoor hesitated, Clara strengthened her Influence.

"Of course. Go right ahead."

Half an hour later they were on the road.

"Two more stops, boys."

The next morning, Clara felt it as everyone heard the truck approaching and came out to greet it.

She grinned at the confusion on Alyssa, Kendra, and Emmi's faces. Then the shock. Then the delight.

"Whose idea was this?" Kendra raced towards her stuff. "This is so great!"

Clara smiled, "Well it seems my gift is really handy when it comes to glossing over the fact that your child has gone missing…" her smile faltered, "It sucks though that we can't see our families again…but they will be content with the alterations I made to their memories…"

She had made all the parents remember that their children had chosen to attend far off schools with little means of communication. She was surprised at how well it had worked.

The three girls didn't ask what Clara had done. Kendra disappeared with Maksim and her stuff. Then Alyssa and Shayne, then Emmi and Adam.

"Two by two," Andrew came up and took Clara's hand.

While everyone else was having a pleasant morning, Alice was having a terrible one.

She had seen it. She knew. She didn't know how to change it.

Jasper was with her, keeping her calm.

"How do we tell them?" Alice whispered.

"Do we?" Jasper asked, thinking logically.

"I don't know," Alice whispered brokenly. "If this vision happens after we tell them I had the vision, we can't stop it. But if it happens because we don't tell them then it happens and it's done. It's a merciless paradox!"

"I'm going to tell them," Jasper said firmly.

Alice wailed despite the calming influence. "No!"

"Then I won't," Jasper decided.

Alice froze. "NO!"

"What is it?" Japser pleaded, wishing he could read her mind as Edward did.

"I-it doesn't ch-change," Alice sobbed tearlessly. "The names I gave you, the people. N-no matter what.

"In t-two months time, when they," Alice said disgusted through her despair, "are ready. Those…they…. It doesn't change," Alice broke down and Jasper gathered her tiny frame in his arms.

_Two months,_ he thought, _in two months, those warriors on our side will die. And if they leave… we all do._


	63. Supernova

Supernova

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. **

**However I do own the characters I made up. **

**I also don't "own" the characters based off of people I know. **

**Oh, and you people who I based characters off, sorry if I don't have you act like yourself at some point, these are rather odd circumstances!**

**PLEASE review!**

**-Assyla Silver**


	64. Supernova prologue

Prologue

"Chelsea, pet," Aro said silkily, "Is _everyone_ ready?"

"Yes, master," said the girl. "We are _all_ prepared."

Aro reached out a hand gracefully and Chelsea grasped it lightly. Caius looked remotely interested. Marcus looked bored.

"Very good. It is time to depart."

"Do make sure that we aren't near the special group," Caius said to Heidi as Chelsea departed. The blonde woman nodded respectfully and her heels clicked across the floor as she went to be sure this was done.

"My brothers," Aro said after a moment. "In one day's time we shall secure our world for ever. Even their powers will not help against so many. And with our newest edition being tested as we speak it will be a short struggle indeed."


	65. Sn Chapter 1

Chapter One

"This reminds me of the Hoovervilles from US History," Alyssa said to no one in particular. "All these tents and edgy people."

_I guess you could compare it to that...as we are fighting a central form of government that we are currently quite angry at...and when I say 'we' I obviously mean not me._

"Oh come off it, Twin, we refuse to let you die," Alyssa snapped.

Everyone turned to look at her briefly.

"I did it again, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," Maksim said matter-of-factly. "Tell my wonderful mate that she needs to calm herself and focus on not dying. She promised."

_She promised,_ Kendra mocked in Alyssa's head. _Blagh!_

"You do realize she can hear you," Alyssa said.

Maksim walked away, into his tent, leaving the group numbering at four: Andrew, Clara, Alyssa, and Christian.

_Did he just walk away? Ugh, Twin, I need to be there!_

"So how are you, Kendra?" Andrew looked towards Alyssa, knowing that they could share sight (and every other sense in the vampire/human body).

Alyssa felt off as she was suddenly completely sharing minds with Kendra. She was seeing both the campsite at the river and the house near Forks.

"Just fine sitting here alone without my family and friends in my room picking the carpet off the floor," Alyssa said in her 'this is Kendra talking' voice. "How do you think I am I'm bored out of my peanut butter mind!"

"She cussed?" Clara asked, guessing the reason for the random 'peanut butter'.

"Mmhmm," Alyssa nodded vaguely. "She wants to punch something or be allowed to go hunt."

"I don't see why she shouldn't be allowed," Andrew said.

Alyssa shrugged.

"**Net!**" Maksim yelled 'no' from his tent.

_See? According to Maksim it goes against my 'promise'.__ Stupid promise he shouldn't take advantage of a girl like that._

Alyssa sighed. "Hey, Christian, turn off the iPod for a sec."

Christian obliged. "What?"

_I wish I would tell Christian to turn off his iPod…_

"You know where the other moon wolves are? I wanted to talk to Emmi a bit. Shush, Twin!"

Kendra mentally stuck out her tongue. _I wish Sima had a cell phone…_

"You really seem insane these days, Alyssa," Andrew laughed.

Clara shoved him playfully. "Leave her alone."

Edward walked up just then. "360-162-5327."

_YAY! I could kiss you__, Eddie!_

Edward smiled, rolled his eyes and walked off to go find Bella.

_I GET TO TEXT SIMA! And subsequently yell at him via the messages I send to him!_

"Finally!" Alyssa laughed. "She's going to bug Maksim now."

"I thought you two were like totally in sync," Christian said. "Never having your own mind."

"It's like that when we're not thinking about it," Alyssa responded. "It's also a lot more natural. But we're testing the waters. After all, what if I get distracted by something there while fighting here?"

"Plus the boyfriend thing," Christian snickered.

"Shut up, Vaughan. Where's Emmi?"

"Somewhere with Adam."

Alyssa sighed. "I'm going to go find Shayne." She was gone in an instant.

"And then there were three," Clara said.

"This waiting is horrid," Christian said loudly. He had turned up his music again.

"At least we can sleep through some," Andrew said.

Christian shrugged.

Emmett suddenly turned up. "Christian, Alpha wolf wants you."

"Huh?"

"Get your butt to Adam."

"Oh."

"Down to two," Andrew laughed.

Clara smiled. "Well then, what shall we do?"

"If you don't cheat we can play cards," Andrew said. "There's something we haven't done in forty minutes."

Clara laughed. "Let's play your Ace game."

In his tent, Maksim was texting Kendra

M: Moya Lyubov', you know why I need you safe.

K: Yes I know but I'm so bored without you...

Maksim rolled his eyes.

M: I miss you too.

The tent flap opened and Jasper ducked inside.

"Maksim, is she staying put? Alice is worried." Jasper knew that as of now Kendra wasn't going to die but he was searching to do all he could to reduce the numbers.

"Yes, as far as I can tell. I do not think she would break a promise like that."

"Good. Will you come out and help me with some of the wolves and vampires? They need to learn to fight cooperatively."

"Sure, I'll just tell Kendra…" he sent the text and then followed Jasper out of the tent.

"Do you think they'll come?" Emmi looked up into Adam's eyes. They were sitting together in a nearby clump of trees.

"We might have to do another spell tonight," Adam said slowly. "And then there's the transformation discussion we need to have with Christian."

Emmi bit her lip. She hadn't transformed yet. She wasn't sure she wanted to. She liked being this happy and feeling and seeing so many things with her new senses. She didn't want it to change.

"It will be all right," Adam reassured her. "The actual changing isn't as bad for females."

"It's the double PMS isn't it," Emmi said. "the human kind and the Pre-Moon kind."

"Supposedly. That's what Sassaba says," Adam added absentmindedly.

"Who?"

"My sister's student," Adam said. "Possibly the strongest female of our species."

"How many are there of us now?" Emmi asked quietly.

"Ten. There will only be eight at the battle, however."

"Why?"

"Two are carrying pups, whenever a female is pregnant she hides until her time comes. Another precaution we take as our numbers are so fickle."

Emmi nodded. She hoped that one day she'd have to hide for that reason. She had always wanted to be a mom.

"And we aren't going to tell any of the vampires about the others coming. The element of surprise is always best kept until the last second…"

**After dark**

The Moon Wolves were meeting in the trees.

Adam took a deep breath and reached within himself.

_I am the firstborn son of the first Man Wolf._

He howled, splitting the quiet night sky.

Emmi and Christian kept their eyes shut, focusing on drawing their species to this place, imagining it, five more coming. Five more beings that could make all the difference.

They only opened their eyes again when the last echo of Adam's howling faded.

Adam looked very solemn.

"This hasn't been attempted in two hundred years. I've explained how this request is repaid."

They nodded. They understood.

"Lie on your back and look toward the sky. The movements of the moon control our transformations. Think of the moon among the stars. Reach to her. Ask her."

Adam repeated the mantra until he felt disconnected from his body. Then he knew by instinct what to do.

_Knowing what will be done and what time will be given, I ask for the body and power of the wolf._


	66. SN Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Alice knew. Today was the day. She went around and hugged everyone, making sure not to linger on the ones that they would lose if her visions didn't change. They couldn't know. That would set the future in stone. Something that had never been her experience before.

But this was unlike anything else.

The Volturi had never faced this opposition before. If all went well, the star of the Volturi would die and leave a new era in its place.

If not…

She continued talking with everyone.

She came to Carlisle. "Where are Emmi, Adam and Christian?" They clouded her vision as the shape shifters did. She didn't know who would die and who would survive among them. She wasn't even sure about Andrew.

"I haven't seen them," Carlisle said. "How long do we have?"

"Forty minutes," Alice said expressionlessly. She went to Jasper.

"It's all right," Jasper murmured.

Alice just shook her head. She wasn't sure if the names would stay in her mind if she blurted them out.

In her mind.

Alice whirled about and her eyes locked with Edward.

_You know._

He nodded almost imperceptibly.

_You see what I see. I can't see how to change this._

He bowed his head.

_I can't,_ Alice thought, horrified. Every waking nightmare was confirmed.

"No," Edward whispered. If Alice had not been listening she would not have caught it.

_Even if I try and protect them… more die. If I warn only them, others die. If I warn everyone, they still die._

Edward came over to her and whispered on the lightest of lightest of breaths. "This is not your fault. They know what may happen. Focus on keeping it to a minimum." It pained Edward beyond belief to say that, but he had no other choice.

Alice nodded and turned back to Jasper.

Everyone was with their mates, the couples standing in their battle groups.

The minutes were ticking by.

Everyone kept saying I love you. Kept embracing each other. Kept encouraging each other. None of them knew who had no future beyond today. They embraced hope as Alice wished she could.

"Five minutes," Edward called when Alice couldn't.

The Moon Wolves appeared walked out of the trees. Everyone gasped.

It was the middle of the day.

And the Children of the Moon were…_wolves_.

Edward read Adam's mind.

"They have to stay like this for three full moons. But they refused not to fight."

Alyssa, Clara and Andrew went up and hugged each of them.

"Thank you," Alyssa said quietly. She returned to Shayne's side.

"We'll see you in three moons," Clara smiled.

"You guys…." Andrew said, "Thanks."

They regrouped with the Call shape shifters.

Three.

Two.

One.


	67. SN Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Volturi didn't come the same way as last time, Bella noted. They knew better now.

Bella carefully fitted her shield around everyone on her side and the shield complied easily. She was sitting out the fight, protected by Edward, Tanya, Siobhan, Jake and Sam. Her power was crucial to their winning. Bella had focused the last two months on knowing everyone's spark so that she wouldn't make any errors during the battle. There wouldn't be any second chances for this.

Edward scanned all the minds of their allies, making sure everyone knew who they were going after. Then he turned his attention to the Volturi and for two fifths of a second couldn't believe what they had done. The reason Alice had seen so many of their number, the allies numbers, die.

"They have newborns."

Ten feet away from Bella and her mini battalion, Andrew looked at Clara, "Can you feel how many?"

"Twenty," Clara said tersely. "Some of their souls are really dark… others are muddled, like they're really confused."

"Right," Andrew said. "Either way, none of them are getting near you."

Benjamin held Tia's hand as he made changes to the elements, creating unstable ground in the places that everyone had agreed on and pulled out the box of matches from his pocket. "Stay close by me."

"Always," Tia said.

Jake and Sam passed on new commands to their packs. Stay with their assignment but take down as many newborns as possible. Bella felt the pressure of Jane's attacks looking for holes and the Novocain feeling of Alec's power. They weren't getting through for anything.

Alice knew now why her family and friends were going to die. The Volturi had broken their own law. Jasper was casting feelings of hopelessness across the Volturi's forces. Carlisle hadn't been sure how effective that would be, due to extensive training and foreknowledge. At the very least it might slow their reflexes down.

The Volturi struck first.

And a dance of chaos ensued.

Stefan and Vladimir went after Felix first. They were evenly matched, age against skill.

_Go help them_, Kendra ordered in Alyssa's head, seeing the match in Alyssa' peripheral vision.

_I'm going!_ "Shayne!"

The mates jumped in and grabbed Felix's arms, allowing the Romanians their shot at the fighter.

The wolves were having a hard time with the newborns.

"Katie!" Garrett yelled.

"Way ahead of you, babe," Kate said with a vicous grin, charging through the battle and shocking the newborns on her high shock setting. Garrett, Eleazar and Carmen saw some fleeing and gave chase, cornering them in a high mountain top.

"Don't hurt me!"

Liam, Adam and Emmi were circling Heidi and discovering her power. She created copies of herself. (Illusions, of course.) The three were having difficulty figuring out which was the real Heidi.

"That one!"

Demetri snarled at his opponents. Blond male and female. They were nothing more to him than obstacles to taking down the shield.

Alyssa and Shayne were struggling against Chelsea and Afton. Alyssa hated not having Kendra at her side for the battle. Especially since she was shouting instructions at her while trying to fight. Chelsea was right on top of her and she couldn't afford a lapse in concentration.

"Umeretʹ!" Maksim shouted, tackling Chelsea. She barely had time to realize what hit her.

"Shayne!" Renesmee yelled, jumping onto Afton's back like a monkey. Shayne took the opportunity to knock down Afton and smash his face in.

Jane slipped past the fighting, taking Santiago and Renata with her. They were going to turn the tide. If Alec could use his power this would be over for good. Renata didn't generally leave Aro's side but this was a desperate move.

"There she is," Jane breathed. "Don't let go of me." Renata nodded and they charged.

Jake and Sam saw her and ran at her. Jane laughed as the shape shifters got confused and left their path clear. Aro was right. The shields were equal in power. Bella was dead.


	68. SN Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Christian saw the Volturi vampires circle around the fights and head straight for Bella Cullen. He abandoned the fight with the newborn to Emmi and Adam.

_I have to take down Jane._

Jane was getting closer to Bella.

The shape shifters left her path clear.

Edward was thrown off course.

Christian recognized the vampire attached to Jane and immediately changed targets.

But he never got to take Renata down.

Someone beat him to it. A large, sleek grey-red werewolf he didn't recognize annihilated Renata without a sound.

Jane snarled, smiling triumphantly at Bella, so focused on her kill that she didn't realize Renata had fled.

Christian pounced, knocking the child sized vampire to the ground and pinning her there.  
Jane bit the abomination of nature that held her. It cried out but didn't release her. It was a Child of the Moon.

The last thing the little witch ever knew was a second Child of the Moon's paw coming down on her, making the seconds go by slower than they ever had in her immortal lifetime and then—  
Christian looked at the Moon Wolf who had finished the bloodsucker off. Obviously a female. She winked one great eye and took off into the battle, joining four other Children of the Moon that hadn't been there before.

Rosalie and Emmett had reached Caius and his mate. Terror flitted across the red eyed vampires' faces before they recalled that they knew how to fight and they attacked.

It was a shame they didn't last more than six point two seconds.

Rosalie and Emmett took the shredded bodies to the fire pit Benjamin and Tia were tending. Twelve feet deep and wide, the flames danced and begged for more fuel. The battle field was emptying of Volturi vampires.

Marcus and Aro were being cornered by Maksim, Carlisle, Esme, Maggie, Kachiri, Senna, and Zafrina. Aro's mate had already gone down and the two ancients only had each other left as far as they were concerned.

"Brother," Aro began, but Maksim interrupted.

"You dare call him brother after what you did?"

"You have no idea of what you speak," Aro said coldly. "Marcus, he is trying to divi—"

"Like hell I don't! You call him your brother after being the sole cause for his misery. After taking away the very reason for existence and yet forcing him to go on anyway!"

Aro's eyes widened as Marcus's sharp intake of breath let him know that he, Marcus, finally understood.

"_YOU!"_

Marcus turned on Aro, his grief and rage challenging even the pain he clearly remembered of his change from human to vampire. Then his awakening to see Didyme watching him with wary joy in her red eyes. Not seeing her again until after he joined forces with Aro and discovered she was his sister. Falling in love with her.

Losing her.

Never knowing why.

How.

Until now.

"Marcus!"

Marcus realized he was attacking remains of Aro that were beyond repair. He fell to his knees, shaking. Sobbing. Not hearing the murmers of conversation around him.

The entire Olypmic coven was gathering around Carlisle, looking to him. The battle was over.

Carlisle made his decision.

"Don't touch him. He can decide his own fate after… after. Clear the field, ask Benjamin to return it to its original state."

"Carlisle," Edward said softly, "There are survivors. Newborns."

Carlisle looked away from Marcus and glanced towards the shape shifters, who were guarding four terrified young ones.

"Jasper calm them down. Edward? Clara?"

"They were all tricked into this. They fled when the fighting started."

"Only one of them _might_ be a cause for concern," Clara said quietly. "He was among the first they made and the most they polluted."

"Alright. Alice, Jasper, if you will speak to them…?" The two went at once.

Carlisle could hardly believe that his family was standing there intact… well mostly. "Bella? What happened to your finger?"

"One of them tore it off," Bella shrugged. "Edward told me how to heal it."

"Andrew? What's wrong?" The hybrid was leaning on Clara for support.

"Snapped a leg. And an arm. And a wrist. I think my nose broke at one point, too."

Clara bit her lip, worried. She had been so intent on slowing down the whole of the Volturi that she hadn't been able to stop the vampire that had hurt Andrew before Andrew had taken him down.

"We'll fix that back at home."

"When are we going home?" Maksim asked plaintively.

"Soon," Carlisle's eyes flickered to Marcus briefly. "Edward, newborn thoughts?"

"Three want to go off together. Charlotte and Peter want to take one into their coven. The one Clara was worried about. He'd do well there."

"Good. The other three can leave when they wish as long as they know the rules."

"Rules?" Emmett demanded. "We just annihilated the rule makers!"

"We still can't let the humans find out," Carlisle said firmly. "But before the anyone goes, we all need to gather together to form a new government…"


	69. SN Chapter 5

Chapter 5

_Three months later_

"The Moon wolves are changing back today," Edward announced needlessly. Everyone had been waiting. The new vampire government had been established and agreed upon within that community, but peacemaking with the wolves that had been hunted for so long would make all the difference in this new era.

Alyssa and Kendra were scribbling in a corner, finally feeling relaxed enough in their new lives to start writing again. This time around, though, they were staying away from vampire stories. The Volturi did enough damage with that. Shayne and Maksim were trying to see what their mates were writing.

"You aren't writing anything!" Maksim exclaimed, finally managing to glance the notepads. "Those are all scribbles!"

Alyssa and Kendra broke into a giggle-fit. "Perfect recall, Sima," Kendra managed to say. "These are just to control our ADHTAS."

"What?" Sima looked confused.

Andrew, Clara, Alyssa, Kendra, Edward, Bella, Renesmee and Jacob all answered him at once. "Attention deficit, hey there's a squirrel!"

Maksim suddenly wondered about the mental balance of this patchwork coven.

Quil and Embry suddenly appeared at the door. Jacob stood. "They're coming?"

Carlisle and Esme looked at each other. They were concerned about a rivalry conceiving between the two species of wolves. (The Quileute wolves still didn't think of themselves as shape shifters.) Edward heard their thoughts and considered this. He doubted any rivalries would emerge. The Children of the Moon tended to stay in either small groups or be alone from what he had heard in Adam's mind. Edward had yet to hear of a pack of four. But then, there weren't many of them left.

The new "government" the vampires had agreed on was this: the 'original' Cullens (Carlisle and Esme, Edward and Bella, Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice) would use _real_ trials after a vampire was accused of a crime or Alice saw it. Various vampires around the world would be invited to be witnesses to the trial to be sure it wasn't a charade and end result to see it was just. There wouldn't be any secrets between the leaders and the led.

The Moon Wolf first into the house was Emmi. She ran right to her friends, almost forgetting Adam for a second, hanging back in the doorway.

Edward heard the thoughts of the wolves outside. "They aren't comfortable being indoors with us."

"So we'll go to meet them," Carlisle nodded. He led his family outside to meet the beings that had saved who knew how many lives.

Alice was completely calm. Due to Jasper. She still hadn't told anyone but Jasper and Edward about who had been doomed if not for the Moon wolves. She didn't want to break down and tell them now that it didn't matter. Jasper had understood and spread his influence over her.

There were eight Children of the Moon here. Adam, Emmi, Christian and five more.

Carlisle started. "Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. For giving up your human forms to help us."

Two males in the back, Errol and Leavitt, looked at each other. That wasn't what they had expected.

To Adam's left, Ulric was eyeing Emmi. He was almost sure that…

"We came to take down the Volturi," Tala asserted, her eyes dangerously blank. "We had a common enemy. That is no reason for us to have an alliance in the future."

Sassaba raised an eyebrow, warning her somewhat friend to be careful. "Unless we have a good reason. We did not like the tactics of the Volturi. Their… goals."

"Their goals to hunt the Children of the Moon to extinction," Edward said quietly.

"Exactly," Leavitt spoke. "We have no trust left for blood drinkers."

Errol's lips tightened into a hard line as he observed the blood drinkers in front of him. They were the ones rumored to be different. The ones who didn't hunt humans. Even so… "We have no reason to trust your strange coven either."

"My family and I understand," Carlisle said quietly. "But then it seems we are at an impasse. We," he gestured to the rest of the Cullens. "Do not wish to start anything new with animosity between the different species."

Tala looked to Adam. "You're the expert on these ones. Talk."

All eyes turned to the oldest Child of the Moon present.

Adam looked each of his kind in the eyes one by one as he spoke. "I do trust them. They didn't leave me to the Volturi in France. They befriended the shape-shifter wolves. They have not shown hostility to me, even when I turned their friend into one of us without their knowledge. I see no reason we can't coexist."

It wasn't even quiet for a heartbeat when Ulric suddenly spoke for the first time. "Would you completely trust them with, say, your offspring if a need arose?"

Adam didn't hesitate. "Yes." Emmi's mouth dropped open and Adam wondered if he had erred in her eyes but had no idea how.

But Emmi was staring at Ulric. "Is… am…?" She couldn't speak; it seemed like not enough air would enter her lungs to permit her to form the question.

Ulric understood. "Yes."

The rest of the wolves were lost. Every vampire but Edward was lost and he wasn't going to open his mouth at this moment

Emmi beamed and addressed Ulric's earlier question. "I would and _will_ trust them with that." She turned slightly and looked up at Adam, watching as the pieces fell into place. His mouth parted slightly, and then his whole jaw dropped.

Everyone understood at once.

"Ohmygosh!" Kendra and Alyssa squealed and rushed forward with Clara to envelope Emmi into a quick hug before surrendering her to her mate.

During all the commotion that followed the unspoken agreement was understood.

Sassaba walked over to where Christian and Andrew were talking quietly together about what had happened. Her eyes met Christian's. He was the one that the red-eyed witch had bitten. "I haven't actually met you yet, you know."

"Right," Christian half-smiled. "But I know you're the one that killed Jane while I held her down." He unconsciously rubbed his forearm. The one Jane had bitten. "I'm Christian."

Andrew watched the two fall into conversation, grinned to himself and walked away from them unnoticed. Christian would find a girl _after_ they all almost died.


	70. SN Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Clara was talking with Emmi but when she saw Andrew she excused herself and the two went round to the front of the house.

"How long has it been?" Clara asked after a few peaceful minutes of sitting together on the front

"A year?" Andrew guessed. "Maybe? Really, I'm not sure it matters," he added after a moment of thought. "It's more about what's happened than how long it's taken for it to happen."

Clara nodded in agreement.

But Andrew wasn't finished. He turned so that he was facing Clara and reached out and turned her face towards his so he could see her soon-to-be gold eyes while he spoke. "What's happened is that I've discovered it doesn't matter _what_ I am. That used to be the most important thing in my world. _What_ I was.

"And then you came in. You crashed in, changed the focus of my world, changed your own world entirely and we made with through fire with our family. And now we have forever."

As rain started to slowly fall on the earth, washing away the old and giving a life to what was starting. Beyond the clouds the very universe seemed to realize that truth. They all had forever. Nothing would tear apart everything that had happened and make it a mere memory in history. Nothing was strong enough to.

A new time, a new star, new life had been born.


	71. author's note

_**Author's Note**_

**Hey everyone,**

**Thank you so much for reading. I know it's been a long story (even if the last part was short) but I put my whole heart into it and I hoped you enjoyed it. I think this one is ready to be closed. Maybe a one shot or two in the future if the right scenario presents itself.**

**I'd still love to hear any thoughts you have about my writing and the story itself. What you thought was all right and what I could improve. Anything you think should have happened or any fore mentioned one-shot ideas.**

**Assyla Silver**


	72. previously mentioned possible one shot

How Immortals Play Video Games

"I don't want to play!" Kendra growled.

"_Come on,_" Alyssa whined both mentally and verbally. "Maksim is hunting with the other vampire guys and we need one more person for an immortal Swat game!"

"_No._"

"ALYSSA! KENDRA! COME ON!"

"I'M NOT PLAYING!"

"YES SHE IS! HELP ME, CHRISTIAN!"

Christian and Sassaba raced downstairs. Alyssa and the werewolves surrounded Kendra and herded her up the steps; Christian kept a firm grip on her shoulders to stop her from jumping off the staircase.

Andrew looked up from his food to grin at the sight of Kendra being forced into this. It was a comical sight. Two big flat screen TVs, two Xbox-es, seven immortals ranging from excited to content, and then the lone, pouty vampire.

"I'm going to punch that look off your face," Kendra said flatly when she saw Andrew's expression.

Clara laughed. "It's not that bad, Kendra."

"It's _Halo__,_" Kendra said the word like it was disgusting. "I don't play video games well!"

"You haven't tried as a vampire," Alyssa reminded her. "It's freaking awesome. No experience necessary."

"Max party size is four," Emmi said. "Turn on the other Xbox, will you, Sassaba?"

"You know it," Sassaba grinned. She loved these games. She wondered if any aliens like the ones in any of the _Halo_ games could possibly exist. After all if three vampires, four werewolves, and a hybrid immortal could all play video games together, why not? "Teams?"

"Random," Andrew said instantly. "We'll be evenly matched."

"Give Kendra a minute to figure out the controls," Alyssa reminded everyone.

"A _minute_? It's going to take longer than that!"

The game loaded up and Emmi, being first player, loaded up Forge. "Sixty seconds, Kendra."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Fifty-seven, fifty-six…"

Alyssa smirked as Kendra found that she was able to understand how to move around her Spartan, how to jump, melee, shoot and use grenades. "Fine. Let's get this over with."

Emmi ended the Forge session and set up Swat.

Clara glanced at Andrew. She might lose the bet they had going if Kendra picked it up that quickly.

Andrew, Kendra, Emmi and Adam were reds and Alyssa, Clara, Sassaba, and Christian were blue.

"Sword base!"

"Powerhouse!"

"The purple one!" Kendra said. Everyone looked at her. "What?"

The votes ended up being none of the above and more choices were given. Pinnacle ended up being chosen.

"Why can't I use grenades?" Kendra asked once it loaded.

"It's Swat, not Slayer," Sassaba said.

"_First strike!_"

"Hey!" Sassaba smacked Adam.

"Your fault for not paying attention," Adam laughed.

_Double kill._

"Hey!" Adam and Emmi protested together.

"Pay attention," Christian smiled.

_Betrayed._

"Hey, I killed someone!" Kendra lit up.

Andrew groaned. "That was me."

"Ha!"

"He's on your team, twin."

"Oh."

"You owe me five, vampwolf," Clara said sweetly. "Kendra Does A Team Kill was option three."

"You guys bet on how badly I'd do? Thanks."

"Five what?" Sassaba asked as her Spartan performed an assassination on Emmi's.

"I haven't decided the currency," Clara said innocently.

Alyssa concentrated her thoughts and watched Kendra out of her peripheral vision, waiting for the reaction‒

"TWIN, YOU CHEATER!"

"I'm on the other side of the map," Alyssa said in a tone just as innocent at Clara's had been.

"YOU KNOW FULL WELL WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"

Christian took advantage of the distraction and killed Kendra.

"I don't have the foggiest. Pay attention to your screen now." _Getting distracted by what Maksim did to you last night just won't do, will it? I had to run to Canada just to muffle you the slightest bit._

_Two can play at that game. Your Australian knows what's up down under, doesn't he? _

"Damn it," Alyssa muttered, as Kendra assassinated her right before she could finish meeleeing Andrew to death.

"Do we want to know about whatever you two are thinking?" Emmi asked.

"No."

"You really don't."

"Suck it, blue!"

"How do you like my shotgun, red?!"

"KENDRA, QUIT TEAM KILLING!"

"Next kill wins!"

"Ten seconds!"

_Suicide_.

"I did not!" Adam yelled at the screen as Sassaba killed Andrew.

"HECK YES!"

"Suck THAT, reds!"

"Pure luck!" Adam protested.

"We'll beat you over and over again if we have to," Clara laughed.

"You're on," Emmi said.

"Next losers have to dress up as fairies with their pet dogs," Christian threw in.

"Game on, wolf boy," Andrew smirked. "Can't wait to see all of you in those outfits. Can anyone say 'blackmail pictures'?"

"If Kendra keeps up her awesome skill level, we'll most definitely blackmail you," Alyssa smirked. "By the way, the next round already started."

_First strike! Betrayal._

"KENDRA!"


End file.
